Why, Hello
by you.just.got.STORMed
Summary: **DISCONTINUED**
1. Ch 1: The New Girl

_**A/N: A modern Kel/Dom, I hope you like it.**_

**_Kel and co are about 15 just so you know. Maybe 16. It doesn't really matter, does it?_**

**_And the school is a weird hybrid of American and Australian education. It has both aspects._**

**_So, I hope you like!_**

**Chapter One: The New Girl**

_Oh, heck._ Keladry Mindelan thought, staring at the gates of her new school.

She scuffed a worn sneaker on the sidewalk, sneaking a glance back at her worried mother, sitting in the car.

"Bye, Mum!" Kel called quickly, forcing calm upon herself before she chickened out and asked her mother to walk her into the school.

She waved in what she hoped was a nochalant manner and made herself begin walking down the path.

Other students chatted and laughed with each other, all walking in groups of twos or threes. Kel gulped, feeling like the odd one out... Which she probably was.

Looking furtively at the people around her, she debated who to ask about where the front office was.

Kel looked at a pack of three girls, giggling and talking loudly. All of them were wearing basically the same thing- a denim mini-skirt, a spaghetti-strap singlet and high-heeled sandals. Kel eyed her own worn, flared blue jeans, t-shirt that said "Yeah. I'm cool. What does that make you?", worn skate shoes and thick, ragged belt. _**((Imagine her as a sort of urban/cool style. ))**_

_Definitely not._ Kel thought in disgust. Girls like them wouldn't mix with a girl like her.

Walking far behind the girls were a boy and a girl, walking hand in hand, heads close together. Kel looked away quickly. She couldn't ask them.

"Are you new here?" a male voice came from behind Kel and she instantly jumped, hands out in a defensive position.

"Wow, wow," the brown haired boy backed away, green eyes wide.

Kel relaxed instantly. Years of her martial arts teachers sneaking up on her when she was off-guard had gotten to her. "Sorry," she apologised quickly. "Yeah, I'm new."

The boy nodded. "Thought so. I'm Neal. Do you need any help?"

"I'm Kel. Um, yeah." Kel had never been particually good at meeting new people. "I need to find the front office... I need a timetable."

Neal nodded, grinning. "Sure. Come with me."

Kel followed him obediently, watching the students around them talking. Most of them stopped when they saw Kel- they turned to point and stare.

Kel looked at the ground, trying to hide her embarrassment. Was she really that weird?

Neal pushed open a door and held it open for Kel. She walked in quickly, observing the neat, clean office. Neal walked straight up to the front desk.

"Hi, Mrs Buri," he said perkily, smiling brightly at the woman behind the desk. **_((Yes, this is Buri. Sorry, she got stuck being the secretary))_**

The woman rolled her eyes. "Neal, now you know you're not supposed to call me that at school." She pointed at her nametag, which Kel quickly read. It said "MRS GOLDENLAKE".

"Sorry, Mrs G," Neal said brightly. "Now, this is Kel. She's new."

"I need a timetable," Kel added swiftly, so that Mrs Goldenlake wouldn't think that she couldn't talk.

"Ah, yes," the dark eyes looked Kel up and down piercingly. "Keladry Mindelan. Of course."

Mrs Goldenlake pressed a few buttons on her computer and the printer began to whir loudly.

"Damn thing," she muttered loudly. "Should have gotten a new one years ago."

Neal grinned, and Kel wondered how he seemed to know this woman so well.

"Here you are," Mrs Goldenlake turned around and handed Kel a sheet of paper. "I hope you enjoy Tortall High, Keladry."

Kel nodded and she and Neal exited the office.

* * *

"Ahhh," Kel muttered, studying her timetable.

"What have you got?" Neal bent his head over the timetable just as the bell rung. "I have Maths, with Mr Allcott."

"Me too," Kel said unhappily. She was good at Maths, but that didn't mean she liked it.

"Cool," Neal replied. "Let's go, then. I'll show you your locker."

Kel had to jog to keep up with his long strides.

They entered a large hallway with people milling everywhere. Kel stared- her last school hadn't been anywhere near this big.

"Hey," one of the girls Kel had seen before, dressed in the identical miniskirts, stepped out in front of Kel. Kel nearly crashed into her- she hadn't been watching where she was going.

"Um, hi?" Kel answered politely, unsure of what the girl wanted.

The girl seemed to ignore Kel completely. "Hey, Joanne!" she called loudly, beckoning one of her friends over.

Kel watched and Neal, behind the girl and her friend, shook his head violently, motioning for her to follow him.

"Look what we have here," the girl who had called Joanne over pointed her middle finger at Kel. "A Lump."

Kel was honestly surprised. What kind of person judged another person the instance they saw them?

Neal stepped in. "And what do we have here?" he asked, sticking up his nose. "Oh, how silly of me. Two skanks."

Joanne glared at Neal venemously. "Stay out of this, moron."

Another person decided to butt in.

"Joanne, Liz," a smooth voice said. Kel looked up to find a blue eyed, black haired boy drape his arms around both Joanne and Liz. The two of them instantly fell silent and smiled up at the boy, practically drooling over him.

Against her will, her heart beat faster and she thought, _wow._

Neal smirked at the boy. "Hello, Dom."

The boy called Dom returned the satisfied smirk. "Nealan. How nice." He looked in Kel's direction, showing off pearly white teeth. "Why, hello, darling."

Kel glared at him icily, forgetting that she had once thought _wow_ over his looks. She knew his type- a playboy, a jock. Whatever you wanted to call it, it was the same thing. A flirt.

The girls, Neal and Dom were looking at Kel, as if expecting a reply.

"What's up, jerk?" she asked coolly, addressing Dom. "Never seen a girl that's not falling over her feet to drool over you?"

Liz's mouth actually fell open and she stepped forward until she was right in Kel's face. "You-" she began.

"What?" Kel interrupted her. "You think that's actually going to scare me? Dream on, girl."

Neal sniggered loudly, but to Kel's horror, Dom laughed. "Wow. One with spunk. I like 'em like that."

She struggled to keep her facial expression neutral, staring at Dom as he left, a girl on each arm.

"Who the heck was that?" she finally spat, looking completely disgusted.

"That," Neal answered with a dramatic sigh. "That, to my embarrassment, was my cousin. Domitan Masbolle."

**_A/N: TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK! PLEASE!_**

**_I actually really like dwriting this!_**

**_A lot of fun!_**

**_LOL!_**

**_=)_**

**_All the other characters will be introduced later. This is just like a quick intro to Kel's life._**


	2. Ch 2: Lessons, Friends, OB, Water & MSN

**_A/N- WOWWWWW- I was verry impressed at the responses to the last chapter (thankyou HEAPS guys! The reviews were so awesome =D=D)_**

**_Sorry it took forever- but it's super long._**

**_Anyway, please read the author's note at the bottom because it's important._**

**_So here it is; chapter 2. I hope you like._**

**Chapter Two: Lessons, Friends, Orlando Bloom, Waterbottles and Hotmail.**

The Maths classroom was full up when Kel and Neal entered.

"Sorry, Kel," Neal whispered apologetically, steering away from her. "We have assigned seats."

Kel's face blanched. She had hoped that she would be able to sit with Neal, who seemed to be her only friend.

She waited at the side of the classroom, tapping her foot lightly, as everyone else chattered to the people sitting around them.

The teacher, a tall, rather round man entered, scraping his head on the doorway.

"Hello, you lot!" he said cheerfully, depositing his laptop on his desk and sitting down, not even seeming to notice Kel.

"Now, today, we will be- what, Neal?" he asked, sounding slightly annoyed that he had been interrupted.

"Mr Allcot, Kel's new," Neal pointed towards Kel, who looked down at the floor, thoroughly embarrassed. "She needs somewhere to sit."

"Oh, we have a new student?" Mr Allcot boomed, standing up. "Well come on, Kel, is it? Come out the front and introduce yourself!"

Kel decided that Maths was now her least favourite subject.

She trudged out the front, forcing herself to put on a cool facade.

Spinning on one foot, she turned to face the class. They all stared back at her boredly. "My name is Keladry, but I prefer Kel."

"And where do you come from?" Mr Allcot demanded, grinning hugely.

"I moved here from Yaman," Kel answered unhappily. She missed the city in which she had grown up in, and her friends there.

"Very good," the teacher nodded. "Now... where will we sit you..." he pondered, eyes scanning the classroom quickly. "Ah! There, next to Domitan." He pointed one thick finger in the direction and Kel, dread filling her, turned to look.

Sure enough, there was the blue eyed, black haired boy from the hallway. Dom.

"C...rap," Kel muttered as she headed towards her seat. She couldn't help it.

Neal shot her a pitying look as she walked past him.

Kel dumped her pencil case ad books on the desk loudly, scraping her chair back and sitting down. She sat with her back stiff, fists clenched in her lap, daring Dom to say anything to her.

"Hey, honey," Dom practically purred.

_Oh, he did not_, Kel thought, resisting the urge to spew.

She decided to ignore him, pretending to listen intently to Mr Allcott's long lecture on what they were going to be studying this term.

A hand on her knee made her look down instantly. To her horror, Dom had rested one hand lightly over her kneecap, flashing pearly white teeth at her in a large smile.

Kel couldn't help letting the corner of her mouth twitch upward in a wicked smile. Oh, she was going to teach Dom a lesson.

Dom obviously thought she was grinning at his hand, because he moved it slightly up her leg.

She grabbed his hand, twisting it around slightly so that it was at a barely painful angle.

Dom's eyes widened with pain, but to his credit, he didn't cry out.

"O-w," he mouthed, expression agonised.

"Get your hand off my leg," Kel whispered venemously.

He nodded quickly, mouth open in a silent scream.

Kel released it quickly. "And keep it off," she added, shooting him a glare for good measure.

Mr Allcott didn't appear to have noticed their quiet exchange. He continued droning on.

Kel relaxed in her chair, sure she wouldn't have any more trouble from Dom.

Next thing she knew, a piece of paper was slid under her nose.

_"Hey babe,"_ it read, in messy italics. "_I think you're cute. Why don't you like me?_"

Kel stared at it in disbelief. He hadn't learnt his lesson yet?

She grabbed the paper and scrawled on it: _"One, I am NOT your babe, and I never will be. Two, I am not cute. Three, I don't not like you... I hate you."_

She slid it back across to him, ignoring his reaction and staring at the blackboard.

"_So you wouldn't come out for dinner with me tonight?"_ The note was pushed against her arm, and she looked down at it, rolling her eyes.

"_How dumb are you? Obviously I would NOT, moron."_ Kel shoved it back over, who did this guy think he was?

"_Why not? I have everything- hotness, brains, body..."_

Before Kel could reply that she thought he was a complete idiot that had a million girls down his throat every day, and that she wouldn't go out with him for a million dollars, Mr Allcott noticed them.

"Keladry, Domitan. Do you have something to share with the class?"

Before Kel could do anything, he snatched up the note and began reading it out loud, reading Dom's messages in a deep, macho voice and Kel's in a high soprano.

The class snickered loudly, all except Neal.

Kel turned bright red and stared down at her desk in embarrassment. It was bad enough that Dom was flirting with her at all, let alone that the teacher had to let the whole class know.

Dom, however, stared up at the teacher, grinning widely. He wasn't at all ashamed.

Mr Alcott turned back around. "No notes. If I-"

The bell rung, cutting him off, and Kel jumped up in relief, grabbing her books. "ByeMrAlcott," she gabbled, and ran out the door.

Dom followed at a slower pace, his face set in a smug grin.

Neal met her outside, his expression ashamed. "I'm so sorry, Kel, that's my cousin for you..."

Kel shook her head. "Forget it. What an idiot."

Neal nodded in agreement. "What do you have next?" he asked, changing the subject quickly, privately thinking that Kel looked furious.

"Um..." Kel checked her timetable. "Ah. Sports and fitness." A smile broke out on her face, she loved sport.

Neal's mouth was hanging open. "D-did you just say you had... you had _Sports and Fitness_?"

Kel looked at him in confusion. "Um... yes, I did?"

Neal shut his mouth abruptly. "Wow," he whispered, stretching out the syllables. "W..o...w.."

"What?" Kel demanded, slightly irritated at his shock. "What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing's wrong," Neal said quickly. "It's just that, that class is all boys. No girls have _ever_ been good enough to get into it."

Kel blinked, thoroughly surprised. "Oh," she muttered.

"I'm in it," Neal informed her. "Did you have to try out?"

"No," Kel shook her head. "I just sent in some of my old sport records and stuff."

"Wow," Neal repeated, amazed. "I'm surprised that Coach Wyldon and Miss Trebond even let another person into the class. It's full up."

"Um, Neal?" Kel asked hesitantly. "Maybe we should be getting to class?" She had just noticed that the hallways were completely cleared of other students.

"Oh!" Neal broke out of his apparant daze and nodded quickly. "Yeah."

He led the way, walking swiftly through hallways and corridors until Kel felt completely lost.

Finally, he led the way into an open classroom. It was already full up of boys.

Neal grinned at her, gesturing to the class. "See why I was surprised?"

Kel couldn't help laughing at his satisfied expression. "Yep."

To her relief, there seemed to be no assigned seats in this class. Kel sat next to Neal at a desk, looking around at the other students.

"Hey, Neal?" she asked suddenly. "Why are we in a classroom?"

"It's a single lesson," Neal explained, seeming to jerk out of a daydream. "We only do sports in doubles."

A black haired boy turned around from the seat in front to grin at Neal. "Hi, Neal. Hi..." he paused, looking at Kel questioningly.

"This is Kel," Neal waved a hand in her direction, nearly smacking her on the nose. Kel jerked out of the way quickly. Neal didn't even notice. "Kel, this is Roald."

"Hi," Kel greeted him politely.

Roald nodded in a friendly manner at her and tapped the boy's shoulder next to him. "Look, Faleron. This is Kel- the only girl in our class." He grinned at Kel, showing that he was only joking.

Faleron turned round instantly, floppy dark hair spinning wildly. "Wow, really?"

Kel groaned inwardly, sensing another 'Neal shocked reaction' coming.

"Yep, really," she responded.

At that moment a muscular, almost bald man entered the room, followed by a short, fiery-haired woman. Kel couldn't help being relieved- saved from shock.

"Good morning, class," the man said formally, chiselled features stiff.

"Hi, guys," the woman greeted them, grinning brightly. Kel noticed with a shock that her eyes wer vividly violet.

"Coach Wyldon and Mrs Conte," Neal whispered in Kel's ear. "But Mrs Conte lets us call her Alanna. She's Roald's mum." ***1**

Alanna looked around the room as if expecting something. When she noticed Kel, her eyes lit up and she nudged Coach Wyldon in the ribs.

He turned instantly, sharp eyes finding Kel.

"Ah yes," he said loudly. "The Girl."

The way he said 'girl' was like a dirty word, Kel found her teeth clenching at his tone.

The closed classroom door burst open suddenly and, to Kel's dismay, a dishevelled Dom skidded inside.

"Sir, Alanna," he nodded to both of them, running a hand through his already messy hair. "Sorry I'm late. My locker wouldn't unlock."

Next to Kel, Neal let out a loud, disbelieving snort. Coach Wyldon shot him a glare. "Fifty pushups, Masbolle. And don't do it again."

"Yessir," Dom agreed, dropping to the floor in push-up position. He began lifting himself up and down smoothly in pushups and Coach Wyldon nodded in satisfaction before turning back to Kel.

"Now," he spoke slowly, eyes meeting Kel's directly. "You may have gotten into this class, girl, but that doesn't mean you're going to stay. You have to work to be in this class, and I personally didn't want another person, let alone a girl in _my_ class. But some people-" here he gave Alanna a pointed, long-suffering look, "some people thought that we should give you a chance. So you have a chance, girl. One chance"

Kel bristled inwardly at his tone. It took all her self control not to get up and call him a sexist pig, but before she could do or say anything, a cold, sneering voice spoke.

"We're giving a _girl_ a chance? Why the hell is this happening? This is a disgrace!"

Neal turned his head to face the speaker. "You know what I think is a disgrace, Joren? That we let a sissy like you into the class!"

Kel looked at the speaker out of the corner of her eye. He had icy blonde hair and glittering blue eyes, and Kel instantly disliked him.

"Stop it, both of you," Alanna yelled. Kel looked at her in shock; the woman's face had gone beet red and she was obviously struggling not to do something violent. "Joren, I'll thank you to remember that one of your coaches is female. One hundred pushups for being sexist. Neal, ten for arguing."

"But-" Neal protested. A glare from Alanna silenced him immediately. "Fine..." he muttered, and began his pushups.

Joren merely sat in his seat, expression aloof. "I don't think I should have to do pushups for stating my opinion."

Alanna clenched her teeth tightly together and closed her eyes for several minutes before replying. "Make that one hundred and twenty. Joren, your opinion is insulting and rude. If you cannot control yourself, I will see you at lunchtime."

Joren looked like he was going to say something else, but he shut his mouth, vein pulsing in his forehead. "Yes, Alanna."

Neal finished easily and sat back in his seat.

"You shouldn't have bothered," Kel hissed to him, secretly pleased that Neal seemed to have been standing up for her.

Neal shot her a wide grin. "It's okay, Kel. I hate Joren anyway. We've been enemies since kindergarten."

Kel giggled softly. "Right."

Dom strolled past their desks and tapped his fingers lightly on the edge. "Oooo, Meathead's got a girlfriend!" He wolf-whistled loudly. Several members of the class erupted into laughter and Kel could feel her cheeks burning.

"Shut up, Fruithead," Neal snapped back. "We're friends. What's up, are you jealous?"

Meathead and Fruithead? Kel raised a curious eyebrow at Neal.

"Maybe I am," Dom said finally. "Or maybe I'm just amazed that you finally caught a girl."

"We aren't-" Neal began.

"At least he wasn't late to class because he was making out with several girls in the space of five minutes!" Kel interrupted furiously.

Wyldon had been watching the exchange expressionlessly. Alanna, however, had a huge grin on her face and she winked subtly at Kel.

"Domitan, Nealan, Keladry," Wyldon barked suddenly, causing all three to jump. "Enough. If it is alright with the three of you, I'd like to continue with my class. Anymore interruptions will result in a detention."

Kel shut her mouth quickly, and put on her calm Mask.

"Yessir," Neal muttered, abashed.

Dom dumped his books in the desk behind Kel's, and slid the chair out noisily. He plonked onto the chair and stretched out his long legs.

"Good," Wyldon nodded his head, satisfied. "Get out your books. Today we are going to..."

Kel was jerked out of her concentration by a kick on her chair.

She ignored it, positive that it was Dom.

Another kick annoyed her, the third made her wish that she had hurt Dom more before.

"Masbolle!" Wyldon barked suddenly. "What's the square root of pie?"

Dom jumped in his seat. "The square root of pie, sir? What does that have to do with sport and fitness?"

"Nothing," replied Wyldon, smirking. "Now, what's the answer?"

Kel turned to see Dom chewing his lip. "Um...."

"'Um' is not the right answer, Masbolle!"

"Maths has never been my strong point, sir," Dom answered lightly. "I don't think it's yours, either, is it?"

Choruses of 'ooo's and 'suh-nap's echoed around the classroom. Kel rolled her eyes and turned back to face the front, thoroughly frustrated.

Wyldon stared at Dom coldly for a few minutes. "Right. See me after class."

"Yes," was all Dom said.

When the bell went, Kel jumped out of her seat and moved to grab her books.

"Keladry," a voice called, and she turned to look quickly.

"Yeah?"

It was Alanna. She came to stand next to Kel, reaching up to place one hand on her shoulder. "Keladry..."

"Kel," Kel corrected swiftly.

"Kel," she amended. "I'm sorry if it's going to be hard for you, being in a class full of boys. Don't listen to them. Keep persisting."

Kel nodded. It was nice to know that she had someone who supported her in this class. "Thanks," she mumbled finally. Kel had never been good at dealing with emotional things.

Alanna nodded and stepped away. "See you next lesson."

Neal waited at the door. "What was that about?" he asked curiously, glancing from Kel to Alanna.

"She just wanted to say hi," Kel told him, not bothering to explain what Alanna had said. "What have we got now?"

"Recess!" Neal said brightly, rubbing his hands together with glee. "At last!"

Kel laughed as she followed him through the hallways. Neal was practically running, eager to introduce Kel to all his friends. He led her outside onto a large, grass oval where a big group of people were standing.

Kel swallowed, suddenly nervous. Neal had befriended her, but would his friends?

"Neal!" a black haired girl called brightly, breaking away from the group.

Neal and Kel reached them all and Neal grinned at the girl. "Hi, Yuki. Yuki, this is Kel. Kel, this is

Kel was staring at the girl, trying to place where she had seen her before.

And then it clicked.

"Yuki! Oh my gosh!" Kel interrupted Neal loudly.

"Kel?" Yuki popped her gum. "Like as in, Keladry Mindelan?!"

"Yes!" Kel replied, a grin breaking out onto her features. "I can't believe it! I didn't realise that you'd moved here!"

Yuki moved in to hug Kel tightly. "This is crazy, man! Shinko's here, too!"

A puzzled Neal looked back and forth between them. Neither of the girls took any notice of him.

"Shinko's here?" Kel repeated questioningly.

"Do I hear my name?" A laughing, beautiful girl stepped out, dragging the black haired boy from Kel's previous class by the hand.

"That you do!" Yuki turned around, laughing lightly. "Look, Shinko! Kel's here!"

Shinko let out a loud squeal that Kel was sure could be heard from the other end of the school. "Kel! Like, no way!" She ran over, still dragging Roald, and hugged Kel tightly.

Roald let go of Shinko's hand, thoroughly confused. He and Neal watched the girls talking. "They know each other?" Neal asked, baffled.

"Seems so," Roald replied.

"Oh my gosh, Kel!" Shinko was saying. "You have to meet everyone! They'll love you!"

A hyped Shinko dragged Kel into the group. "Kel, this is Seaver, Merric, Faleron, Roald, N- oh wait, you've already met Neal, Owen, Cleon, Lalasa... yeah, that's everyone. Everyone, this is Kel!"

"Hi Kel," a shy looking, mousy-haired girl said. Kel remembered that the girl was called Lalasa.

"Hey, Lalasa," Kel replied, trying her best to be friendly.

A red headed, rather chubby teenager popped up in front of Kel's face. "Hey, is it true that you're the only girl in the sports and fitness class?"

"Um... yeah?!"

"Wowwww," the teenager breathed. "My name's Owen, by the way."

"Hi, Owen," Kel said politely.

"Kel!" Shinko bounded up again. "Are you in any of my classes?"

Kel got out her crumpled timetable from her pocket. "I have English next, then Art. After that I have lunch, Music and History."

"Yes!" Shinko bounced up and down excitedly. "You're in my History class and my Art class!"

Yuki had been listening too. "I'm in your English class... I think Lalasa's in Music with you."

"Wait, wait," Neal objected, wiggling a finger from Yuki to Shinko, to Kel. "How do you three know each other?"

"I used to live in Yaman up until I was 13," Yuki reminded Neal. "Shinko and Kel lived there too."

"Oh," Neal muttered.

"Are you in any of my other classes?" Kel asked hopefully. As much as she liked the girls, Neal seemed like a good friend already.

"Art and Music," replied Neal absently, still looking like he was trying to figure out Shinko, Yuki and Kel's relations.

The bell rung suddenly and Kel grabbed her bag quickly.

"Let's go!" Yuki had picked up her bag also and began walking beside Kel.

* * *

Although Art was alright, Kel was relieved to be out of it.

The teacher, Miss Roberts, fortunately, had been an absentminded woman who hadn't bothered making Kel introduce herself out the front of the class.

English had been a different story. Mrs Eroz was a bright, bouncy woman who wore bright clothes. She had basically made Kel give an entire speech on who she was, where she had moved from, her family and what she liked or disliked.

"Lunch!" Shinko sung gleefully. Kel smiled contentedly, glad to have friends already.

It came as a surprise to Kel that instead of going out onto the bright, sunny oval of recess, that the group turned into a large, open cafeteria.

"Where are we going?" Kel asked curiously, looking around the room. To her disgust, she saw Dom with one arm wrapped around a bright, platinium blonde's waist and the other hand holding tightly onto a pale redhead's hand.

"The cafeteria," Shinko replied, sweeping one hand out in a dramatic gesture. "Do you like? We always come here at lunchtimes."

She saw that Kel was staring at something, and looked in the direction of her gaze. "You're looking at Dom? Do you like him or something?"

Shinko giggled lightly as Kel made spewing noises. "No. That's disgusting... Is he always like that?"

Yuki nodded her head, ponytails bouncing. "Yep. Always has been, always will be. But he's hot."

Kel's mouth dropped open. "You think-" she stopped abruptly as she remembered her embarrassing reactions to Dom's looks this morning.

_No one has to know that._ "You think that _that's _hot?" she demanded, continuing indignantly. "He's got a girl hanging off each arm!"

"I know," Yuki grimaced. "And I wouldn't want to be one of them. But that doesn't change the fact that he's hot."

Kel, Shinko and Lalasa all rolled their eyes simultaneously.

"Sure, Yuki," Shinko muttered sarcastically.

"Ah!" Yuki held up a finger in sudden realisation. "He looks like Roald actually! Shinko, you can't insult your boyfriend by telling him he's not hot!"

So they were boyfriend and girlfriend. Kel had thought so.

"He does not look anything like Roald!" Shinko cried, horrified.

"What?" Roald had come up behind them and placed a hand on Shinko's waist. "Hey, babe."

He kissed her lightly on the cheek as Shinko giggled. The couple dropped back, slowly walking behind Kel, Yuki and Lalasa.

"True love," Yuki muttered, her tone faintly sarcastic.

Neal moved in between Kel and Yuki. "Hey, Yuki, have you read that stupid Twilight book? Seriously, it's like the dumbest thing ever."

They moved forward to walk in a pair in front of Kel and Lalasa.

"What!!" Kel heard Yuki squeal. "Neal!" The sound of a hand connecting with a cheek reached Kel's ears. Neal yelped loudly. "How can you say that! It's awesome! Edward Cullen is _so _hot!"

"You're hopelessly shallow," Neal announced sadly. "Thinking a fictitional character is hot!"

"But he is!" Yuki insisted. "He's so sweet... and gentlemanly..." She sighed lightly and then smacked Neal's shoulder. "Unlike _some_ people."

"Are they like, going out?" Kel whispered to Lalasa. From what she could tell, Yuki and Neal seemed to like teasing each other and spent a lot of time together.

Lalasa shook her head and showed a small smile. "No. But they like each other, I can tell. Yuki denies it, but..." She glanced at them in front of her and shook her head. "She does. And Neal likes her, too."

Kel nodded in agreement, watching her two friends banter in front of her.

* * *

Kel sat, one of her legs crossed under the other, at a table in the cafeteria. Neal sat on one side of her with Shinko on the other.

It was all peaceful until a smirking Joanne approached their table, swinging her hips in a way that Kel privately thought made her look constipated.

"Hey, Lump," she addressed Kel, her smirk growing into a full blown, satisfied smile.

"Oh, look," Yuki ignored Joanne and stared past her, eyes huge. "Wow! It's ORLANDO BLOOM!"

"OMG!" Shinko squealed from next to Kel. She winked at Kel before returning to her act. "Oh my goldfish! ORLANDO!!!"

Joanne spun, her face excited. "Where?!"

The whole table erupted in laughter.

"Nice," Neal choked out through his laughs, high-fiving Yuki, who grinned.

"Morons," Joanne hissed, by now inspecting her long, bright red nails as though she had never turned around. "What are you, three?"

"No," Seaver replied, face straight. "Actually, I'm fifteen, two months, and ten days."

Joanne's face was furious. She was struggling for a comeback when a smooth, pale hand fell on her shoulder.

"Relax, Joanne," Dom rolled his eyes. "Don't waste your time on them, babe."

To Kel, Neal mouthed 'ignore them', and he turned back to his sandwich and bit into it. "Mmmmm," he said through a mouthful, delibrately spraying crumbs all over Joanne.

"EW!" she shrieked, backing up and tripping over one, three inch stiletto heel.

To everyone's complete horror, she went crashing to the ground, pulling a very surprised Dom over with her.

The entire cafeteria was silent until Shinko began giggling uncontrollably.

"Oh, heck," Roald managed finally. "This is as good as a circus!"

Kel couldn't help it, she was laughing too.

"Dommm," Joanne was whining. "Help me up!"

Dom was still lying on the floor, a stunned expression on his face.

A sudden surge of courage overtook Kel and she did something that she would never, ever normally do.

She got up, grabbing her water bottle, sliding past Neal and Yuki. "Kel!" Neal hissed. "What are you doing! Don't help them up!"

She didn't. She stood over Dom, her face deliberately serious. Unscrewing the top of the water bottle, she held it over Dom's head dramatically.

Dom closed his eyes instantly. "No!!! Please no!!! Do you know how long I spent on my hair?!" he groaned, trying to put a hand over his face. Unfortunately, Joanne had his hand held tightly in hers.

"I don't know how long," Kel said coldly. "And I really don't give a damn."

"You hurt me," Dom moaned.

"But," Kel continued as though he hadn't spoken. "What I do know is, I don't like guys who flirt with me the first time they see me. I don't like guys who ask me out to dinner through a note in a class, when they haven't even had a proper conversation with me. I don't like guys who have about five girls hanging off each arm. And you know what? This type of guy makes me mad."

Without any further ado, Kel poured her entire bottle of water onto Dom's head, and went back to her seat.

"HIGH FIVE!" Shinko practically screamed, bouncing up and down in her seat.

"Nice work Kel," a large boy told her, blushing slightly pink when she looked at him. Kel vaguely remembered that his name was Cleon.

Neal was in hysterics. He was writhing in his chair, laughing. "I... officially... love... you... Kel," he finally managed to say, still sniggering.

Dom, by now, had stood up. His black, shiny hair was a complete mess. Water dripped off him onto the floor.

Without another word, he stomped angrily out of the cafeteria, which only made everyone laugh harder.

Joanne grabbed a table, pulling herself up with difficulty. "Bitch," she spat at Kel, who only stared back innocently.

Joanne also clicked haughtily out of the cafeteria, giggles following her.

* * *

"Hey Kel," Shinko whispered suddenly. "Do you have MSN?"

Kel jumped. It was history, and she and Shinko were supposed to be listening on a long lecture about some battle or other. "Yeah," she said softly in reply.

"Give it to me!" Shinko exclaimed. She pulled out a bright pink, feathered pen and a piece of paper, gesturing for Kel to say.

"Lady... Underscore... Knight... underscore... Kel... at hotmail dot com," Kel hissed quietly.

Shinko wrote it down and held out the piece of paper for Kel to check. Kel looked, and then nodded swiftly.

_lady_knight_kel hotmail. com_ was written in Shinko's neat italics.

The bell rang loudly, and Kel's first day of school was over.

She waved to her friends and dashed to the school carpark where she was supposed to be meeting her mother.

To her horror, a now dry Dom was standing there also. To her surprise, and relief, he completely ignored her. _Yes!_ She cheered silently in her head. _I scared him off!_

Looking at the handsome boy standing near to her, she felt a twinge of disappointment. She couldn't help wishing that...

_DON'T GO THERE!_ She practically yelled in her head.

Her mother's old, red van pulled into the carpark at that moment and Kel moved forward quickly, eager to get away from Dom.

"Nice ride," he commented, smirking.

Kel rolled her eyes at him and jogged across the road into the car. "Hey, Mama," she greeted her mother brightly.

"Darling!" her mother leant over and kissed her on the head. "How was your day?"

Kel thought about it. "It was good," she decided.

**_A/N: so, that's the chapter._**

**_Please review!!! I'll send you virtual lamingtons!!!_**

**_LOL._**

**_Ok- anyways- READ- this is IMPORTANT._**

**_I will probably not be updating for the next six or seven weeks. I'm sorry, but..._**

**_a) I have a lot on at school at the moment_**

**_b) I am going on a month long holiday where I won't have computer access_**

**_and _**

**_c) I really need to pack!_**

**_so, please don't give up on me_**

**_This story is of course going to be continued, just not for a while._**

**_So, I hoped you liked the chapter._**

**_I'm not sure whether it was very good because it was a tad rushed, but yeah..._**

**_Plus Kel was majorly OOC but you know._**

**_xoxox_**

**_-Triss._**


	3. Ch 3: MSN, Dates, Guilt Tripping & Music

**_A/N: Hi, guys. I am sooooo flipping sorry that I haven't updated in forever! To make up for it, I've tried to make a really long chapter, so there you are. I'll try my best to update at least once every two weeks from now on :)_**

**_Thankyou SO much for all the alerts, favourites and reviews, they're seriously AWESOME. I reread them all today and was like AWWWWW XOXOXOX!!!! lolz.. but they cheered me up no end XD_**

**_Oh yeah, sorry about the confusion with Mrs Conte and Miss Trebond. I meant Mrs Conte but I accidentally wrote Miss Trebond._**

**_(Alanna/Jon forever! lol!)_**

**_Hope you enjoy :)_**

**Chapter 3**

A thoroughly sweaty and exhausted Kel trudged into her room.

Sweat dripped off one eyebrow and she swiped at it with annoyance. Her training today had been intense- more difficult than usual- but at least both her marshal arts teachers had been pleased with her progress.

She sat down at her desk and opened up her laptop, pressing the on button and waiting for it to load.

Once it had, Kel double-clicked on the MSN icon and typed in her login.

To her surprise, she had about ten requests.

She clicked on the first.

_shinko_princess_of_everything..._

Kel didn't bother reading the rest. Shinko had obviously added her, and from what she could had guessed from the names and email addresses, so had Yuki, Neal, Lalasa, Cleon, Roald, Owen and Seaver.

It was the last request that had her stumped.

Who the heck was _thedominoeffect_93 hotmail. com?_

Shrugging, she clicked 'accept'. Might as well find out who it was.

No one was online when she checked, so Kel went to take a shower. She scrubbed herself vigorously, letting warm water wash away the sweat and grime from a hard day.

Once she had dressed in clean clothes, she returned to her laptop.

Three orange bars at the bottom were flashing.

Kel clicked on the first.

_**KEL!!!!**_

Smiling, Kel swiftly typed a reply. _SHINKO!!!!_

The next was from who Kel assumed was Neal- the name was 'TWILIGHT SUCKS and EDWARD CULLEN IS A DOUCHEBAG!"

_hi Kel_, it read.

**_Neal?_** she typed and sent.

The third was the unknown person.

_Hey_, it said simply.

**_Hi.... who r u?? _**Kel wrote, curious.

She typed more to Shinko, and the Twilight hater who did turn out to be Neal.

Eventually, the _dominoeffect _conversation flashed again.

_Take a guess_

Kel frowned faintly. Who the heck was this?

**_R you from Tortall high?_**

_Yeah_

**_.... Cleon? Seaver? Faleron?_** Somehow, she didn't think that it would be either Yuki or Lalasa. Yuki would straight out say who she was, and Lalasa didn't seem the sort to make her guess.

_Hehe, no :P_

_**Just tell me!**_ She smiled despite her slight annoyance.

_Oh c'mon. I'm sure that ur subconscious knows, even if u don't._

Kel stared at the odd comment, and then giggled with a mixture of surprise and amusement.

**_Tell!_**

_R u quite sure u want 2 kno?_

**_Yes!_**

_It's me, darling._

Kel's fingers froze on her keyboard.

_Darling_.

That could only mean one person.

Dom.

And he had actually been acting like a bearable human before she had identified him.

For whatever reason- one that she certainly wasn't going to admit to- Kel didn't want to block him.

Instead, she typed rapidly: **_You're Dom_**

The email address finally made sense. theDOMinoeffect_93

_And you're Keladry, the new girl ;)_

Kel honestly didn't know what to say, and whether she did want to say anything.

After a long pause, Dom wrote again.

_Guess I scared you off.._

Kel chewed her lip. He did still seem to be acting nice, maybe she should say something back?

_Do you like my email? theDOMinoeffect_93... get it babe??_

That decided it.

This wasn't anyone different, this was the same Dom as at school today.

The same Dom whose head she had poured an entire water-bottle over in front of most of the school.

**_Like I said today, I really don't appreciate people like you. Go away._**

_What if I don't want to go away?_

**_Then I guess I'll have to make you_**

Kel blushed intensely as she realised how that could sound.

_Only one thing will MAKE me ;P_

**_Dream on._**

_Don't worry, I will._

**_Why did you even add me??_**

_Like I said. You're cute. I like you._

**_The feeling isn't mutual._**

_Don't try and tell me you're not attracted to me_, Dom sent, accompanied by an eyes-rolling emoticon.

**_What the hell?_**

_Oh c'mon. I'm hot. Girls like hot. You're a girl._

Kel shot furious daggers at the screen. Oh, Dom would pay tomorrow.

**_Stuck up much? I'm not one of your shallow, fall-for-random-hot-guy girl. Just because you're hot doesn't mean you're not a complete jerk. When are you going to get that I DON'T want to go out with you???_**

The only reply she got was, _So you're admitting I'm hot? That's a start._

Blushing a vivid red and feeling a strong urge to grab Dom out of the screen and strangle him, Kel closed the chat window with him abruptly.

What a moron.

* * *

Kel's alarm clock trilled annoyingly. She slammed wildly at it, groaning faintly as she rolled over onto her side and cracked open a single, bleary, hazel eye.

"Ugh," she mumbled. It was time to get up and get ready for school- already. It felt like mere minutes after she had crawled into bed to go to sleep.

She forced herself out of bed and down to the kitchen, where her two sisters, Oranie and Adalia and her one brother left living at home, Avinar, were already eating breakfast. Her father had already left for work, and her mother was in the shower.

Her other brothers- Conal, Anders and Inness- along with her other sisters- Demadria and Patricine- all had married and moved out long ago.

Kel swiped a bowl from the cupboard and dumped three Weetbix into it. Adding some milk and sugar, she scooped it all into her mouth swiftly, finishing breakfast just as Adalia- who had started about 10 minutes before her- did.

Adalia wrinkled her nose at her sister. "Kel, you shouldn't eat so quickly. You're going to make yourself sick one day."

Kel eyed her sister with some amusement. Adalia was probably the nicest of her sisters- Patricine had never really approved of her being such a sporty tomboy, Demadria hadn't stuck around home enough for Kel to get to know her and Oranie, although kind enough at home, was ashamed of how Kel dressed and acted around her friends- probably because her friends, and her, dressed so differently.

Today, Oranie dressed in a denim miniskirt with tight black leggings underneath and a slim-fitting white singlet, with some form of black cardigan over the top.

Kel's planned outfit for the day included the same jeans as yesterday but a different t-shirt, and a hooded jumper if it turned colder.

She couldn't help being glad that Oranie and Adalia didn't attend her school- they would certainly be a target for all the hormonal boys, and it stung for Kel to meet people that her sisters knew as well, and to be compared to them. It didn't help that most of the time, their gazes told her that she was a disappointment.

"Guess what," Oranie gushed, as Kel and Adalia placed their bowls into the dishwasher. "I have a date tonight!"

"Really?" Adalia responded with interest. "Who with?"

Kel tried to seem remotely interested at this fact- but the problem was, this sort of thing simply didn't interest her when it was Oranie.

Oranie had a date with a different boy almost every week- her relationships were usually based on how the other boy looked rather than on his personality.

Oranie sighed dreamily, her eyes cast up to the ceiling. "Domitan Masbolle."

Adalia squealed. "OH MY GOSH! He is SO hot!"

Kel stared at both her sisters in complete shock. "Did you just say _Domitan Masbolle_?"

_Damn,_ she thought privately. _So much for Oranie and Adalia not attending my school and not knowing anyone who went there!_

Plus, that just made Dom flirting with her almost a hundred times worth. He was chasing her _and_ going on a date with her sister.

Talk about being a player.

"You know him?" Adalia replied curiously.

"He goes to my school," Kel informed them, shutting the dishwasher a little harder than necessary.

Her anger wasn't all directed at Dom playing with Oranie's heart- most of it came from knowing that he would flirt with her, to her face, today, knowing full well that he had a date with her elder sister that night.

Or maybe he didn't realise that Oranie WAS Kel's sister.

He would, Kel decided grimly. He was definitely going to find out today.

She shoved her worries for Oranie down deep and concentrated on her anger. Besides, Oranie could definitely look after herself. She had proved it on multiple occasions.

"You are SO lucky," Oranie sighed, running a hand through her bleach-blonde hair. "Have you talked to him?"

"A little," Kel admitted. A slight feeling of guilt crept into her mind, but she banished it. It wasn't _her_ fault that Dom had decided that he wanted her.

Glancing at the clock, Kel realised that she had just ten minutes to get dressed, brush her hair, clean her teeth, pack her bag and go to the bathroom.

"I'd better go get ready," she told her sisters quickly, who, immediately after Kel left the kitchen, began gossiping about Dom.

Kel used the bathroom- spashing cold water on her face to fully wake herself up- and scrubbed her teeth swiftly. She then yanked a brush through her hair hastily, glancing at her watch and deciding that she really didn't have time to bother to tie it back. She ran into her bedroom and pulled some clean ankle socks, her jeans of yesterday, a bright turqoise t-shirt, some suitable sneakers and clipped on her small "K" necklace.

She glanced at her timetable, silently rejoicing as she realised that she had double sports and fitness and double music, but groaning as her timetable also showed that she had maths and english also.

Realising that she would need other clothes for sports and fitness, she shoved a pair of black, loose shorts and a random shirt into her bag also.

Then- grabbing a black hoodie on the way- Kel ran downstairs and slid breathlessly into the old, red van. "I'm good," she announced, panting slightly.

Her mother smiled at her, eyes twinkling with silent laughter. "Let's go."

The car ride was relatively un-eventful- Oranie proceeded to bring out a compact mirror and swipe more eyeliner and mascara onto her face and Adalia listened to her iPod.

"Hey Kel," Oranie finally spoke. "Come here for a second."

Kel glanced curiously across at her sister, and was about to lean across Adalia to see what Oranie wanted, when she realised that Oranie was still holding the mascara brush.

Kel shook her head in disgust. "No thanks."

Oranie groaned loudly. "PUH-lease, Kel. Now that I know you go to the same school as Dom- who I have a DATE with tonight- I want my little sister to go to school actually looking like a decent GIRL. Pleeeeeeease, just this once."

Their mother glanced into the back of the car and shook her head at Oranie. "Leave Kel alone. If she doesn't want to wear makeup, she doesn't have to. And how do you know this Dom anyway?"

This, to Kel's intense relief, set Oranie off on a long rant about how she had met Dom in the plaza with her new friends about a week ago, and then he had added her on Facebook and asked her out.

There was another moment of relief for Kel when they reached Tortall High. "Bye Mum. See you later, Oranie, Addy."

She slid out of the car and, knowing that she was already late, jogged down the path into the school.

Neal and Yuki saw her running down the path as they were walking together.

"Late on your second day, Kel?" Neal asked, grinning wickedly.

"Of course not," Kel informed him in a snobby tone. "Everyone else is early. I'm right on time."

Both Neal and Yuki laughed. "Nice," Yuki snickered. "What does your shirt say, Kel?"

Kel stopped so that they could inspect her shirt. Neal read it aloud: "Somedays I think it sucks to be me, but then I'm just glad that I'm not you.... Love it. I want one."

Kel raised a sarcastic eyebrow. "This is a girl's shirt, Neal, but I'm sure I could get you one just like it for your birthday."

Neal crinkled his nose. "It's okay."

Yuki gave Neal a light shove away as they reached a corridor. Packs of other teenagers moved towards their classes.

"Go away, Neal," she giggled lightly. "Get your own class to go to."

_That's right._ Kel remembered someone saying that Yuki was in her english class, but Neal wasn't.

"Bye Neal!" they both called, as Neal turned right down another passageway.

"Sooo, Kel," Yuki began, as they walked into a basically empty classroom and took a seat. "We're early. Let's chat. You gonna come to the party in the plaza this Saturday night?"

"There's a party?" Kel asked, curious despite her hate of parties. "Whose?"

"Faleron's!" Yuki bounced in her seat. "It's at his house- you should see it, it's flipping HUGE! And there'll be heaps of people.. and music...!"

Kel shook her head doubtfully. "I don't know. My mum mightn't like it. Plus, I haven't really been invited..."

Yuki rolled her eyes. "Trying to get out of it? You never used to like parties back in Yaman. Seriously, Kel, I know your mum's not that strict, and of course Faleron will invite you. You have to come. It'll be fun. We can chat and... stuff. It's formal though, but don't worry. Shinko, Lalasa and I will take you dress shopping!"

Laughing, Kel shrugged. "I'm not keen on the dress. But maybe. I'll see."

Yuki's face took on a faintly mischevious look. "Alright," she said, with surprisingly little begging.

The english teacher chose that moment to walk in, and Kel had to be satisfied with just shooting Yuki a suspicious look.

As Kel settled in her seat, she spotted a black-haired head sitting in the row in front of her.

She stared at it momentarily.

_No flipping way. How is that even possible?_ She wondered, horrified. _He's in every single class of mine so far! Art, Music, Maths, Sports and Fitness, History and now English?_

_Please do NOT let Dom be in my Spanish or Geography classes. Please no..._

"... And I see we have someone new in our class," Kel broke out of her thoughts only to find the english teacher, whose name she had no idea of, standing over her with one dark eyebrow raised. "I am Miss Winters. You must be Keladry," the teacher stated briskly.

Looking at the neat suit, the perfect hair and the stern expression, Kel felt sure that Miss Winters wouldn't make her give a full speech on her life. She sighed silently with relief, and nodded in answer to the question.

"Good," Miss Winters responded, and walked back out to the front of the class. "Now, Keladry, I don't know what you have been doing in English at your old school, but this term we will be studying "Tomorrow: When The War Began"."

Several groans echoed around the classroom, causing Miss Winters to smile grimly.

Kel couldn't help the corner of her own mouth twitching up slightly. Thankfully, she had already read the book back in Yaman.

* * *

After English, to Kel's dread, Maths came.

The subject in which she sat next to Dom.

Neal passed by her English classroom and they walked to Maths together.

"Please save me," Kel muttered, as they walked into the open door.

Neal shot her a sympathetic look. "Good luck," he replied quietly, and headed over to sit at his own seat.

Mr Allcott was walking in behind Kel and he made an impatient noise when she halted, staring at where she was supposed to sit.

In it, sat no other than Joanne, whose lips were attached firmly to Dom's.

_Ew_, Kel thought grimly. _He's probably got some kind of disease from kissing so many different girls. He better not kiss Oranie._

The chances, she reflected, of him NOT kissing Oranie were very, very slim.

Mr Allcott pushed past Kel, seeming not to even notice Dom and Joanne, or perhaps choosing to ignore them.

Kel gritted her teeth, walked over and dumped her books on the desk.

"Excuse me, that's were I'm supposed to sit," she began with forced politeness. "But if you want to swap places with me, I'm certainly happy to."

Joanne broke away from Dom and shot Kel a venemous glare. "You know, Lump, I would actually like to-"

Dom cut her off quickly. "I'll see you later, babe," he winked at her with one bright blue eye, and Joanne, obviously blaming Kel for this intrusion, shoved past her and clicked across the room to her own desk.

Kel shrugged, disappointed that there was to be no seat-swap, and sat down, sliding her chair as far away from Dom's as possible.

"Oh, come on, darling," Dom looked across at her, eyes widened. "That's a little childish, don't you think?"

Kel's anger at her sister's 'date' returned, and at the fact that Dom had cut Joanne off before she could say that she would like to swap seats with Kel.

And darling?

She tried hard not to yell.

"Shut up, Masbolle," she snapped angrily.

Dom's face took on an expression of hurt. "Last name terms? What's gone wrong?"

Kel glanced out the front, only to find that Mr Allcott was handing out textbooks to the front row.

"You want to know what's wrong?" she demanded. "You are _using_ my sister."

Dom raised a curious eyebrow. "You have a sister? Is she as gorgeous as you?"

_Do. Not. Attack. Him._ Kel clenched her jaw firmly.

"My sister," she replied, forcing a calm tone. "Is the girl that you have a date with tonight."

He blinked in an obviously puzzled way. "I have a date tonight?"

Kel stared at him with shock. Was he faking or had Oranie gotten the nights mixed up?

Suddenly, comprehension dawned upon him. "Oranie. Of course. I had no idea that she was a relation of yours, darling."

"Stop calling me darling," Kel hissed furiously.

A textbook was dumped onto the the table in front of Kel.

"Well, this is all very nice," Mr Allcott said drily, "But I feel we need to do some maths. Chapter 8, class. Advanced equations."

Dom also was handed a textbook, until:

"Mr Badrick!" Mr Allcott said angrily. "Stop it!"

Kel had no idea what 'it' was, but she looked across at the boy that had caused Mr Allcott's yelling. She didn't recognise the boy- a tanned face with dark brown hair and a wicked smile.

"Stop what, sir?" the boy asked innocently.

Mr Allcott glared firmly at him. "You know exactly what. Go sit in that table over there."

He pointed to a lone table in the front corner of the room.

"But sir," the boy protested. "Then I won't have a textbook. I was sharing Joanne's."

Mr Allcott sighed noisily. Then...

"Masbolle, give Badrick your textbook. Then you can share with Keladry."

Kel's jaw dropped. Bad luck much?

Dom, snickering a little, walked across and dropped the textbook onto 'Badrick' 's desk. Then he sauntered back to sit next to Kel, who was looking at him like he was a disgusting, dirty dead rat.

"Something wrong, Kel?" Dom asked, feigning obliviousness.

Aware that Mr Allcott was watching her, Kel shrugged. "Not at all."

As Dom reached across to drag half of the textbook onto his desk, he let his hand touch Kel's lightly, earning him a furious gaze.

Kel worked steadily through the Maths problems, barely struggling. Maths came easily to her, but it also bored her, hence one of the reasons why she didn't enjoy the class.

Beside her, Dom groaned and stuck up his hand for help. Kel glanced across at his book, trying not to smirk with satisfaction when she realised that he was about ten questions behind her, and stuck on a question that she had classified as easy.

Mr Allcott came over and began explaining the problem to him in a low murmur. Kel didn't bother listening, she worked on, and only looked up when Mr Allcott said her name.

"Keladry?"

She jerked her head up swiftly. "Yes sir?"

He didn't bother messing around. "Domitan here struggles with Maths, especially equations. I have tried explaining them to him but it just doesn't seem to work. I thought perhaps that another student might have more success. You seem quite confident in Maths so I was wondering whether you would consider tutoring Domitan outside of school."

Kel covered her shock, revulsion and horror well. _TUTOR HIM? I don't think so!_ "I don't know, sir. I barely have any free afternoons. Sorry."

"Even a weekend would do," Mr Allcott prodded. "Sunday afternoon?"

Kel just didn't know what to say. Was there a polite way to refuse him? "Mr Allcott," she began politely, sneaking a look across at Dom, who was staring at the textbook, looking humiliated. She couldn't help feeling slightly sorry for him, but she continued firmly. "I don't know about Domitan, but I would say that we don't really get along at all. I don't think that-"

"Of course you get along fine," Mr Allcott interrupted her. "Sunday afternoon it is then. Three o'clock until five o'clock. You can either meet at school or at one of your houses. Discuss it and tell me before the end of the lesson."

Open mouthed, Kel stared at Mr Allcott's retreating back.

_WHAT?! I didn't even agree to this!_

Dom looked over at her, took in her expression and shrugged resignedly. "It doesn't matter. We can just pretend for him, and I fail the midterm test and you 'fail' at tutoring me, he'll ask someone else. Relax."

"Uhh..." Kel honestly had no idea what to say. Finally, she thought of something. "You, you could ask Neal. He's your cousin, he might."

Dom grinned faintly. "You have no idea how many times Meathead has refused to tutor me."

Kel's conscience was getting the better of her. _Oh come on, two hours on a Sunday afternoon. How bad can it be? You'll tutor him, he won't fail, and there. All done._

She swallowed, hard, and chewed the end of her pencil absently. _Don't be stupid,_ one side of her was saying. _Tutoring him would be terrible. He'd be either hitting on you for the entire two hours or, if you were at your house, he'd be hitting on your sisters._

_But he's failing,_ the other side argued. _It must suck to fail. He looked so embarrassed. He just needs a little help. Then he'll be fine._

Sighing, Kel knew that her nice side had won. "It's okay," she managed finally. "I can tutor you."

Dom stared across at her, surprise written all over his face. "Seriously?"

She nodded reluctantly.

"But why would you-" he stopped himself mid-sentence. "Thanks. Really. So, Sunday afternoon from three til five. Where at?"

Kel shrugged. "You can come to mine if you really want," she offered, already cursing herself for her stupidity.

To her relief, Dom shook his head abruptly. "No. It's fine. We can meet somewhere... neutral. How about the park opposite the swimming pool?"

Kel actually had no idea where that was, but she agreed readily. Besides, meeting opposite the swimming pool could give her a chance to go a couple of hours early and do some laps. "Yep. Sure."

Dom nodded awkwardly. "Yeah. Okay."

They both looked away from each other, Kel cursing herself for being guilt-tripped and Dom patting himself on the back mentally for thinking of such a brilliant idea.

A brilliant idea which would, he mused, 'kill two birds with one stone', as the old saying went.

One bird, maybe Kel would turn out to be a good maths tutor and he would actually pass for once.

Second bird, he would get to see Kel outside of school and he could hit on her. Privately.

Brilliant.

* * *

"Kel!" Yuki shook her head at her. "I can't BELIEVE you got guilt-tripped into tutoring Dom!"

Neal had just bitten into a lamington, but he choked, hearing Yuki's comment. Crumbs sprayed onto the oval.

"What?" he demanded, his mouth still full. "You're tutoring DOM!"

Kel sighed heavily, regretting not only agreeing to tutor Dom but actually telling her friends.

"I know..." she muttered guiltily, kicking a sneaker on the damp ground. "I just felt sorry for him."

Shinko groaned. "And now I feel sorry for you!"

This made Kel laugh a little. "I feel sorry for me, too," she confessed.

"You're too nice," Yuki sighed with exasperation. "Me, I would have told him to go eat dirt, even if he was giving me his hot puppy dog eyes..."

Neal had obviously never heard Yuki refer to Dom as 'hot' before, because yet again, he choked, but managed to swallow his mouthful.

"WHAT! You think my jerky cousin is HOT?!"

Yuki giggled a little. "He is. Even if he is a massive jerk."

Shaking his head, Neal turned away. "Shallow," they could all hear him muttering resentfully. "Shallow, stupid girls."

Lalasa surpressed a snort. "Dramatic, overreacting boys," she muttered, causing their entire group to crack up laughing.

* * *

The end of recess brought double music, much to Kel's joy.

"Today," the teacher, Mrs Dawson, announced. "We're going to be learning several songs. The first is going to be 'American Pie' and the second will be the 'Pink Panther' theme song. The third, if we get up to it, will be 'Mission Impossible'."

Kel grinned with delight. Although she had never bothered to pursue learning an instrument, she had gotten up to grade four in piano before giving up her lessons and just messing around on the instrument, and had learnt guitar for four years. When she was in fifth grade, she had also learnt flute, but she had given that up after a year and a half.

"So," Mrs Dawson continued. "Come get some sheet music, then go grab yourself an instrument and you can sit out in the quad and play as long as you're sensible. _Sensible_," she emphasised.

Kel waited for Lalasa and Owen before she made her way to the front of the room to collect the sheet music and to the storeroom to get an instrument.

"What instrument are you guys going to play?" Kel asked, having no idea as to what instruments Owen and Lalasa might play.

"Guitar," Owen replied, grabbing one from the hook. "You?"

"Flute," said Lalasa at the same time. "I brought mine."

She went off to get it while Kel slid a keyboard off the wooden shelf. "Piano," she responded to Owen's earlier question.

"Cool," Owen commented as they walked outside.

Lalasa was already sitting on a table in the sun, blinking as her silver flute reflected the light.

Kel sat down opposite her, but Owen turned slightly pink, staring off behind Lalasa. "I'll be right back," he gabbled, jogging away with his guitar under his arm.

Looking in the direction that he had jogged, Kel smiled slightly and raised a light eyebrow. "A friend?"

Red-headed Owen was jogging towards a lone, brown haired girl sitting at a table with a black guitar.

Lalasa, shading her eyes, turned around to look. "Margarry," she said without surprise. "Wyldon's daughter."

Kel tilted her head incredulously. "Wyldon... as in, sports Wyldon?"

Lalasa only nodded.

"He has a daughter?" Kel demanded, feeling a little sorry for the poor girl. "But he's so... anti-girl!"

Shrugging, Lalasa picked up her flute. "I know. But Margarry is definitely Wyldon's daughter. I think Owen likes her."

And with that, the high-pitched yet still recognisable tune of American Pie came out of Lalasa's flute and echoed in the courtyard.

* * *

Lunch arrived in due time, and Kel, Lalasa and a wistful Owen made their way to the cafeteria.

Faleron caught up to them in one of the hallways. "Hey Kel, you know there's a party at mine this Saturday night, right?"

Kel nodded. "I heard."

Grinning, Faleron patted her on the shoulder. "You should definitely come. _Everyone_ is. Dress formal."

Sighing, Kel shrugged. There went her excuse... "Thanks," she replied politely.

Faleron nodded. "Cool. See you later!"

He ran off in another direction.

Kel blinked, confused. Faleron was certainly very... energetic. "He's not coming to the cafeteria with us?"

Lalasa shook her head. "I think he has soccer training or something."

Kel nodded in understanding- taking in Lalasa's admiring gaze after Faleron. Well, that was something that hadn't occurred to her. Shy, quiet yet kind and humourous Lalasa liking sporty, energetic Faleron.

Shinko, Neal and Yuki met them at the door.

"Ah, the historical spot of Dom's ownage," Neal sighed, walking to stand approximately where Dom had been lying yesterday. "I thank you, Kel, for such a lovely memory."

Kel smiled absently, her attention focused on the black head across the room, bent over a girl with obviously fake orange hair.

Of course Dom was kissing her.

Kel made herself look away, her feelings an odd mixture of bitterness and disappointment.

She shook herself out of it firmly. What, just because Dom had shown a slightly human side in Maths, she expected him to change completely?

Stupid.


	4. Ch 4: Sports and Crapness & Vomit

**_A/N: Thankyou for all the reviews- they are awesome! I'll try to respond to them later, but I don't have time now- sorry!!!!_**

**_xoxoxo_**

**_Chapter 4_**

When Sports and Fitness came, Kel was pleased that Neal led her towards a massive, brick building instead of the small classroom of yesterday.

"And this," Neal announced, flinging the door open dramatically and nearly knocking Roald over, who had just walked in and shut the door, "is our Hall- to put it in other terms, our Gym and Centre of Sport."

"Cool," Kel eyed the shiny basketball court with avid interest, noting that there was a stage at the front and male and female change-room doors directly opposite each other.

The class was assembling to sit on the stage- Mrs Conte, or Alanna- was already standing there, but Coach Wyldon wasn't. Kel tried not to feel too relieved, and vaulted up onto the stage to sit next to Neal.

"Good," Alanna surveyed the crowd of students with satisfaction. "Everyone's here... Ah. Everyone except Dom."

"And Coach," Faleron called out, grinning mischeviously.

Alanna returned his wide grin with a wink. "And Coach," she agreed, smiling at them all. "Coach won't be here for the first ten or twenty minutes; he has students to deal with."

"What are we playing today, miss?" asked an unfamiliar boy who Kel didn't remember seeing yesterday.

Alanna didn't seem to mind that he had called out. "Basketball, Wolset," she replied enthusiastically. "First we'll be doing a warm-up, then we'll be playing several games."

Kel grinned happily. She loved basketball- it was one of the many sports that she played outside of school, and was good at.

"But first, change time," Alanna told them.

The boys all slid off the stage, grabbing their bags and heading towards the male change room. Neal dithered next to Kel.

"Girls' change rooms are over there," he informed her, pointing towards the door that she had noticed before. "Don't take too long, or else Wyldon will kill you when he gets back."

And on that encouraging note, he headed towards the male change rooms.

Kel laughed at his retreating back, then slid off the stage and jogged towards the girls' change rooms. She would be willing to bet on the fact that she would be out of the change rooms before a lot of the boys.

As she opened the door to get into the room, Wyldon came inside followed closely by a smirking Dom.

"And Masbolle, if I catch you at it again," Wyldon was saying sternly, "You'll be put on afternoon detention for the entire week. Am I clear?"

"Yes sir," Dom saluted Wyldon mockingly, catching sight of Kel and grinning even more widely.

Kel slid inside the door quickly, wanting to avoid Dom's attentions and Wyldon's 'girl' comments.

Once inside, she grabbed her clothes out of her bag and stripped off swiftly, sliding on her black shorts and picking up her shirt.

She froze with utter horror.

It was her black smiley-face shirt.

The smiley-face wasn't what was wrong with it- it was the fact that the shirt in question wasn't actually a shirt, it was a tight fitting, fairly low-cut, thin-strap singlet and the smiley-face just happened to have its tongue out.

A fifteenth birthday present from Oranie.

Kel had never worn it before and she had honestly never planned to. It was too tight, too suggestive.

But now she had accidentally brought it to a Sports and Fitness class to wear.

Crap.

Make that _double_, she thought grimly. A class full of guys. An anti-girl sports coach.

Plush, Dom was in this class. This definitely wouldn't make him back off.

Glancing at her t-shirt that she had worn for the rest of the day, she knew that she couldn't wear it for Sports and Fitness- one, because it was one of her only good, un daggy, un sweated in t-shirts and her mother wouldn't be best pleased if she wore it for sport, and two because it would ride up if she jumped or lifted her arms up.

This only left one option.

Kel, reluctantly but with speed, slid the singlet over her head, thankful that she had worn a yellow under singlet as well, and pulled her black hoodie on over the top.

Then she shoved all her other clothes into her back and exited the change rooms.

Only about a quarter of the boys were sitting on the steps, but that didn't stop Joren from making a snide comment.

"Good to see that you haven't bothered to fix your hair or your make-up, Mindelan," he snarled, earning a glare from Cleon- who Kel hadn't even realised was in this class.

"Shut up, Stone. Just because you're such a pretty boy." Cleon snapped right back.

Kel sat down awkwardly, feeling embarrassed. It wasn't because someone had stood up for her- it was because she felt guilty that she hadn't even noticed that Cleon was in the class, and he seemed to be bent on scaring away her taunters already. Plus, her three or four inch above knee level shorts felt even shorter with everyone else's shorts hanging to their shins.

Neal came out of the change rooms, hair sticking up wildly. His jaw dropped slightly as he noticed that Kel was already sitting down. "What! You beat me!" he exclaimed. Kel couldn't help snickering- his faded blue shirt had a massive tear on the side seam, and he didn't seem to have even noticed.

"Nice shirt, Neal," she commented, grinning wryly- only then remembering that her own shirt didn't even cover her shoulders. Her face fell slightly- but she was definitely glad that she had brought a hoodie.

"What's wrong with-" Neal stopped mid-sentence as he noticed the tear. "Ah. Dammit! My favourite shirt!"

Roald and Faleron, who both came out of the change rooms just as he said that, smirked. "Must be your _only_ shirt," Faleron walked over to jump onto the stage next to Kel. "I've never seen you wear a different one."

At this, Neal stuck his long nose up into the air. "I'm insulted." He stalked towards the stage, still with his nose high-up, only to crash into Wyldon, who was walking across to the male room to yell at the slow boys.

"Queenscove," Wyldon growled. "Quit being a fool and watch where you're going."

Kel tried not to giggle too hard.

Neal's face was comically horrified. "O-of course," he stammered.

Finally, once everyone was assembled on the stage, Alanna and Wyldon instructed them to stretch, jog three laps of the basketball court, then to line up at the far end to play Master.

After stretching, Kel jogged around the court easily, not bothering to try and overtake the panting Joren, who seemed to be enjoying being ahead of her.

Let him have his fun, she thought calmly. It wasn't like she was even trying properly.

She finished third- only behind Faleron, whose hyperness seemed to help him while running, and Joren.

Faleron lined up first, Joren second, Kel third, Neal fourth.

Wyldon and Alanna stood on the sideline, watching the others jog.

"YES!" Faleron practically yelled- most people turned to stare at him. He was grinning wildly. "I GET TO BE THE FIRST MASTER!"

The class and Alanna burst into laughter at his ridiculous excitement.

"King!" Wyldon called. "Get on with the game!"

Realising that Faleron's last name must be King, Kel watched as Joren picked up a basketball, spinning it on one finger lazily.

Faleron rolled his dark eyes. "Hurry up, pretty boy. We haven't got all afternoon to watch you being fancy."

Joren smirked at him, and shot the ball easily. Unfortunately for him, it hit the ring, spun around several times and then fell back out.

Faleron ran to catch it- it bounced once, and he caught it lithely.

Kel, watching his movements, decided that he must either play basketball or he must have used to play it.

He shot effortlessly, and the ball went in- the net swished.

Joren scowled and slouched off to the end of the line- which was now very long, as everyone else had finished jogging.

Kel caught the ball as Faleron passed it to her, measuring up the hoop with her eyes.

Everyone was silent, everyone wanted to see whether The Girl could actually shoot a ball or not.

Kel shot the ball, her face determined. She badly wanted to prove that she had the right to be here, and scoring would only help- or so she thought.

Thankfully, the ball swished in and Kel allowed herself a small grin of relief. Faleron sighed dramatically and paced back to the end of the line.

Catching the ball, Kel tossed it to Neal, realising with horror that Dom was behind him.

_Scorescorescorescorescore!_ She wished silently- it would be better to be beaten by Neal than by his arrogant cousin.

The ball Neal had just thrown hit the ring and bounced off.

Kel caught it after it had hit the floor once and shot it smoothly- although she didn't want to verse Dom, she didn't want people to think her first shot was a fluke- and the ball went in neatly, after hitting the backboard.

Dom was next. He lifted a corner of his mouth into a half smile or smirk at her, holding his hands out for the ball. Kel threw it at him, not bothering to make it a bounce pass. He had to step back to catch it.

He shot confidently, but the ball didn't go in. Kel caught it yet again and shot- scoring.

On the sidelines, Wyldon was scowling slightly and Alanna was looking highly gleeful.

Kel managed to stay in for four more turns until Roald scored the ball first go. Submitting willingly, Kel grinned at him and walked to the end of the line.

After playing Master, the class then did fifty push-ups, one hundred sit-ups and five of a basketball exercise called a 'suicide'- as Neal explained, to the people doing them, it would be preferable to commit suicide, apparently. Basically, it was a running exercise- you had to run from the baseline to the free throw line and back again, then to the halfway line and back to the baseline again, then to the far end free throw line, to the base line, then finally to the opposite baseline, back to the original baseline again. Four of these made Kel and the rest of the class sweaty and hot- but Kel more so, as she was wearing a fleecy hoodie.

"Kel," Neal panted after they had both finished. "Please, for the good of you and the rest of us, take off your jumper."

Kel tipped some water down her throat and shook her head. "Can't."

"Please," Neal pleaded, swiping some sweat off his face with his shirt.

Kel shook her head again, firmly. There was no way that she was wearing_ that_ singlet in front of the entire class.

Or maybe there was.

"Mindelan!" Wyldon yelled, his voice loud in the vast hall. "Take off your jumper!"

"I'm fine!" Kel called back boldly; she brushed the back of her hand across her forehead to wipe away the sweat.

Wyldon halted to stand in front of her, his eyebrows raised in an incredulous expression. "Fine? You're dripping sweat. Take off the jumper."

Kel shook her head determinedly.

"_Mindelan_!" Wyldon barked. "Take off the jumper NOW! That is an order! For your own good!"

By now, the whole class was watching with interest.

Kel gulped nervously. "Please, sir, I brought the wrong sh-"

"JUMPER OFF!" Wyldon thundered, in quite a comical manner. Neal smothered his snickers with a pretence of choking on water.

Glancing around desperately, Kel discovered that Alanna was absent, and lost her last hope of any help.

"Yes sir," she muttered miserably, her cheeks already heating up in sheer embarrassment.

Her blush elevated to full-on, bright red as she slid off her hoodie, revealing the form-fitting singlet.

A wolf whistle, of which Kel strongly suspected Dom, echoed around in the hall. Trying her best to ignore the staring class, Kel tossed her jumper onto the stage and stared at the ground, clenching her teeth firmly.

"She's _hot_," someone whispered a little too loudly.

If Kel's face could have gotten any redder, it would have. However, it was already beyond tomato.

To her intense relief and surprise, Wyldon calmly and without comment called the class back together, taking all the unwanted attention off Kel.

Gratitude filled her as he picked captains for the basketball teams- effectively taking the last few stares off Kel- but she couldn't help smirking with amusement as she saw that the two captains were in fact Neal and Dom.

_Cousin rivalry,_ she thought wryly, managing to forget her shirt predicament for a moment. She was glad that Neal had been chosen as a captain- she was fairly sure that he would pick her for his team.

But today was obviously not Kel's lucky day.

Dom got to choose first. Scanning the crowd with an arrogant smirk, his eyes landed on Kel.

Kel noticed, and not caring what anyone thought, shook her head frantically.

"Kel," Dom blinked innocently as he said the name; Kel hung her head as she walked out to stand near Dom.

He flashed his perfect teeth into a glistening smile at her as Neal gave her a pitying look and chose Roald for his team.

"Wolset," Dom announced, still staring at Kel.

Kel furiously crossed her arms over her chest, quickly unfolding them as she realised that this action only made the top go lower.

_Damndamndamndamndamn,_ she chanted in her head. This would definitely not go down as a good school day.

The choosing continued until the whole class was into a team. Kel flicked her eyes unobtrusively around at her teammates, who had huddled into a tight circle, excluding her. Noticing that Faleron was on her team- but all the others that she knew were on Neal's- Kel walked around the circle with the intention of standing next to Faleron.

Faleron registered her presence swiftly and stepped back, effectively breaking the circle. "Kel! Awesome, you're on my team!"

Kel smiled tightly at him, trying her best to hide her fury. "Yeah," was all she said.

Faleron, noticing at which teammate her dagger-gaze was aimed at, grinned mildly. "Relax," he bent his head to whisper in her ear. "Dom's not that bad. He's my friend. Once he gets out of his playboy persona, he's actually okay."

"Because he totally gets out of his playboy persona at all," Kel responded sarcastically.

Laughing, Faleron gestured for her to join the circle. "C'mon."

Kel reluctantly went to stand beside the brown haired boy whose name she was pretty certain was Wolset. He grinned at her mischeviously as she stood beside him, winking lightly.

"Hey. Don't think we've met. I'm Wolset."

He held out a thick hand for Kel to shake and she shook it readily, glad that someone seemed to be accepting her.

Dom, to Kel's surprise, looked brisk and efficient. "Guys!" he hissed, getting their attention swiftly. "Okay. Now- we know who we need to mark, right? Roald, and the tall guys especially- so Neal and Cleon definitely."

"Yeah, yeah," Wolset broke in. "You're not a sergeant or anything. This ain't a battle. We know what to do. Now can we get on with it?"

Kel grinned slightly with surprise, instantly taking a liking to the cheeky Wolset.

Dom rolled his eyes in response just as Alanna blew her whistle for them to get on the court.

The first game was uneventful- apart from that Kel's team, apart from Wolset and Faleron, refused to pass her the ball. She tried to get their attention unsuccessfully- everytime she was open, the boys would either pass the ball to someone who clearly wasn't open or do ridiculous hog runs.

Kel was incredibly glad that Alanna was in charge of the game. She blew her whistle sharply at the end of the first game- to which Neal's team won 40-28- and the class gathered around her curiously.

"We're going to swap the teams," Alanna announced, her face set angrily. "Dom, your team isn't passing to Kel, even when she's completely open. You guys know better than that. What is this about?"

"She's a _girl_," Joren drawled lazily. "Like we would pass it to _her_."

Alanna snapped.

"Stone, two-hundred push ups. Seaver, swap teams with Kel. Back on the court, now. And if this ever happens again, it'll be a Saturday detention."

Joren brushed past Kel roughly, bumping her shoulder hard as he headed towards Alanna to do his push ups.

"Get out, girl," he muttered furiously at her. "We never used to have this trouble before you came, you little slut."

Kel gritted her teeth but let it go. It simply wasn't worth the fight.

The second and final game was better in one way- the participation way. Kel actually got to touch the ball, and she scored several times, bringing her team to win.

It was worse, because Dom assigned himself to mark her all throughout the game.

She had already gotten twelve points for her team and there was about 5 minutes of the game left, when a foul on Neal was called, and Joren got two free shots.

Kel, standing at the middle line, waited impatiently for Joren to finish.

Dom sidled up in front of her, winking directly at her. "Hey, gorgeous."

Kel looked away with disgust.

"By the way," he murmured as he crouched in front of her, ready to spring at the ball. "You look sexy in that top."

"Shut the hell up, Masbolle," was all Kel allowed herself to say.

He grinned slightly, his cheeks dimpling. "And you're cute when you're angry."

"I'm not angry," Kel responded, making her tone calm. "I wouldn't waste my anger on someone like you."

Dom shifted lightly. "But you think I'm hot."

Struggling to remain impassive, Kel whispered: "Back off. You're going on a date with my _sister_ tonight. And do I have to give the I-don't-like-guys-like-you speech again?"

Oblivious to anything going on in the game, Kel glared at Dom, who didn't notice that the ball was back in play.

He turned to grin at her. "No-" he started to say, but the basketball, thrown by Neal to Kel, 'accidentally' hit him square on the head.

Unfortunately for Kel, he had stepped back to avoid it and had crashed into her.

Kel stacked onto the wood floor, Dom on top of her.

"Owwww," Dom moaned, clutching his head.

"Get... off... me... NOW!" Kel gasped, her stomach and chest completely squished.

Despite his apparant pain, his response was as flirtatious as ever. "No thanks. I think I like it down here."

And then Kel realised something.

His head was right on her.... _upper chest_.

And her already low-cut top was pulled down even further.

"FLIP!" Kel almost squealed, humiliated and horrified, kicking her legs and lifting an arm to slap Dom in the face.

Her hand hit him squarely on the cheek; he groaned yet again, one leg connected with his backside, and Kel managed to get out from under him.

Neal was, predictably, clutching his stomach, laughing.

Faleron and Seaver were staring on in some kind of terrified fascination.

Wolset was sniggering loudly, pointing at the moaning Dom.

Alanna had one hand over her mouth, it sounded like she was coughing... suspiciously, and Wyldon was standing sternly, silently, with his arms folded.

"If you're quite done with the dramatics, Masbolle?" he demanded sarcastically. "Or would you like Mindelan to kiss it better?"

Kel went rigid at the complete unfairness of this comment. It wasn't her fault that Dom seemed to _want_ her, she raged silently. It wasn't her fault that Dom had decided to stack onto her chest.

Dom slid into a sitting position and stopped moaning abruptly. "I would, actually. Kel?"

"In your dreams, Masbolle," she growled furiously, her face for once expressive of every single emotion.

Neal whimpered with real fear, staring at his new friend's livid face.

Kel made herself stay still and stiff, not daring to move for fear that she would punch either Dom or Wyldon, and neither one would end well.

Dom smiled slightly. "Oh, now I've got you angry. Anger is a passionate emotion, you know and-"

Not bothering to care anymore, Kel stalked off into the girls' change rooms, slamming the door shut behind her with small-minded fury.

She kicked her bag violently before sliding to the floor, holding back unexpected tears.

Why, oh why, did her first practical Sports and fitness have to go so badly wrong?

And why did a deluded playboy have to feel the urge to hit on her?

One that was taking her sister on a date tonight?

* * *

Walking out of the hall just as the bell rang, Kel was intensely grateful that everyone seemed to have disappeared. She didn't feel like talking to anyone, let alone the causes of her earlier anger.

As she rounded the corner, the sound of a faint scream hit her ears. She hesitated briefly, then ran swiftly in the direction which she thought it had come from.

Another scream echoed, and Kel zig-zagged into what she recognised as the Music quad, fairly sure that it was coming from somewhere close.

"Shut the hell up," she heard a voice growl menacingly. "Be a good girl, now."

Still running, Kel made her way around the back of a building.

She had found the screamer.

Sickened, she halted abruptly, taking in the scene before her.

Lalasa's back was pressed hard against a wall, her face was wet with shed tears. Her pale blue, v-neck top had been pulled down lower and books were scattered across the ground in front of her.

A tall, muscular boy stood in front of her, one tanned hand over her mouth and one resting on the wall.

It didn't take a genius to work out what was going on.

"Get away from her," Kel ordered evenly, the thought of running not even crossing her mind. The unknown guy may be muscular, but she had had over ten years of marshal arts training.

A smirk appeared on his face. "I don't think so. How about you head home and let us continue our fun?"

"It doesn't look like she's having fun," retorted Kel.

Lalasa's brown eyes were wide and another tear slid down her face. Sympathy filled Kel- she had never felt helpless because of her sports training, and she could only imagine what it would be like.

But perhaps Lalasa wasn't entirely helpless- Kel noted the thin red scratches on the boy's face and arms and silently congratulated Lalasa. Perhaps having long nails did have uses.

"Get away from her now, before I hurt you," Kel warned him, her tone dangerous.

The boy lifted his hand from Lalasa's mouth, his face incredulous. "_You're_ threatening me?"

Lalasa shook her head violently at Kel, obviously worried for her safety. Kel smiled grimly back.

The boy, Kel still didn't know his name, stepped closer to Kel, his face menacing. "I've heard about you, slut. Joren tells a lot. And I'm in your Fitness class. I witnessed your little breakdown today."

Rolling her eyes, Kel flexed her fingers firmly. "I remember you. Vinson, isn't it? Seriously? I wouldn't risk a black eye, people might ask where you got it."

Vinson's only response was a faint lifting of the corner of his lips.

He attacked first. A clumsy, obvious punch headed for the face- Kel ducked it easily and was pleased that this guy hadn't had any training.

It would only make it easier.

A split second after she ducked, she aimed a heavy punch to his gut. It hit squarely and he doubled over, winded.

Raising an eyebrow, Kel stared at him. She didn't particually like hurting people on purpose, but this guy definitely deserved it.

"You think you're so great," he snarled.

His next punch was aimed for her teeth.

Kel dodged it easily and slammed her own fist into his face- right in the spot for a black eye.

"Done?" she demanded grimly, watching him groan.

"Fine," he growled furiously. "It's over for this time. I have a bus to catch. But I'll be back for more later, Lump."

Grimacing at the nickname, Kel waved jauntily as he stalked off.

She turned to Lalasa. "Are you alright?"

Lalasa nodded, her face even paler than usual. She sniffed slightly and wiped her face with her sleeve. "Yeah- Kel, you shouldn't have done that. I mean, thanks, but he's just going to come back, you heard him. I-"

Kel cut her off. "Listen, don't worry about me. I can take care of myself. But how long has this been going on?"

Lalasa shook her head quickly. "Not long- he's only done it once or twice before, but never as bad as that." Kel noticed her pulling down her sleeves and quickly grabbed her arm, causing Lalasa to wince.

"What has he done to you?" Kel whispered, horrified. All up Lalasa's arms were finger-shaped bruise marks. "We have to tell someone. Anyone."

"No- please no!" Lalasa cried. When Kel stared at her with complete shock, she hastened to explain. "No, they'll say I'm a slut and that I'm lying! Please don't!"

"_Who_ will?" Kel's furious tone scared Lalasa, she shrunk back further against the wall. She softened her tone instantly. "Who will?"

Lalasa trembled, but she spoke. "My parents."

"Your _parents_ will call you a slut?"Kel wasn't sure that she'd heard right. Whose parents would say that?

"My parents," Lalasa repeated softly, confirming Kel's worst suspicions. "Kel, when my bro- when someone else beat me up, they didn't care. They were angry at me."

"That's not right." Kel was shocked, horrified- her own parents had never so much as smacked her. And had Lalasa started to say her _brother_ had beaten her up?

This disgusted Kel beyond anything. When her own brother, Conal, had held her over a six-story balcony- causing her fear of heights- her parents had nearly kicked him out. How could Lalasa's parents ignore something like that? Or worse, blame Lalasa for it?

"Please, Kel, just don't," Lalasa pleaded. "It'll make everything worse. Just... just this once. Vinson will stay away from me now that you beat him up. People will talk- they won't believe me, everyone likes Vinson. They'll believe whatever lies he makes up. Nothing will come of reporting it. Please..."

Kel debated furiously.

This wasn't right. Someone needed to be told.

Vinson couldn't just get away with that.

And Lalasa's brother shouldn't be able to beat her up without consequences.

But then again, if Lalasa's parents kicked her out for reporting Vinson, Lalasa would have nowhere to go and nothing.

It was only two or three years until Lalasa was 18, and then she could move out and get a job freely.

Kel had no idea whether she was making the right decision or not, but she nodded finally. "Look. If he comes near you again though, you have to come to me and tell me."

Lalasa nodded quickly, willing to agree to anything now that Kel had said that she wouldn't tell.

Kel seized the chance, sensing Lalasa's mood. "And I'll give you self defence classes."

Lalasa shook her head violently at this, her petrified expression returning. "I couldn't. No."

"You have to!" Kel insisted firmly. "Then you can fight back. You won't have to tell anyone. You'll be able to defend yourself."

Luckily, she caved easily. "Alright," Lalasa murmured in agreement.

"Saturday afternoon, my house," Kel told her.

At this, Lalasa perked a little. "No! That's the day of Faleron's party!"

Sighing slightly, Kel was inwardly glad that Lalasa seemed to have regained some animation. "Fine. Friday at five."

Lalasa nodded reluctantly.

* * *

The two girls were walking up the school driveway when a tall, gangly figure standing next to a Ford jogged over.

"Hey, guys," Faleron greeted them, his usual energy in place. "Why are you so la-"

He cut off as he noticed Lalasa's tearstained face.

"What happened?" he demanded instantly, reaching towards Lalasa instinctively.

To Kel's further horror, Lalasa flinched back as though Faleron, too, was going to hit her.

_This has obviously happened before... lots before,_ Kel thought angrily, now wishing that she hadn't basically promised Lalasa that she would keep it a secret.

"Sorry," Lalasa apologised timidly.

Faleron stared at her for a second, and glanced back to Kel questioningly.

She shook her head minutely, knowing that Lalasa wouldn't want anyone else to know, and to her extreme gratitude, Faleron took it neatly in his stride.

"Okay. Do you need a lift home? I'd say you missed the bus," he gestured towards the empty carparks.

Lalasa managed a watery smile. "Thanks. That'd be good."

Kel, realising with a little amusement that she was no longer needed, waved to them both. "Bye, guys."

"Bye, Kel," Lalasa looked at her for a moment, her thanks clearly spread across her face.

"See you later, Kel," Faleron responded brightly. "And, by the way, I'm really sorry about Sports and Fitness..."

Kel, honestly touched by his apology, smiled back. "It wasn't your fault."

"Still," Faleron said ruefully. "I was the one who told you that Dom wasn't always a player."

Kel grimaced as she walked away, her own problems resurfacing onto her mind.

Players.

Sister's dates.

* * *

The knock on the door came at about two minutes past six.

"KEL!" Oranie screamed from upstairs. "THAT'S HIM! CAN YOU GET THE DOOR?! I'M NOT READY!"

Kel groaned loudly, wishing with all her being that the person on the other side of the door just _wouldn't_ be Dom.

Damn, she thought inwardly, opening the door only to find...

Dom.

He was dressed loosely in baggy jeans and a black button up shirt, a perfect smile pasted onto his face.

"Kel," he smiled, the dim lights reflecting off his shiny teeth. "How unexpected to see you here."

"I sorta live here," Kel didn't bother opening the door wide enough to let him in. "Oranie will be down in a second."

He lifted an eyebrow. "May I come in?"

Kel was sorely tempted to shake her head, but knew that her sister's wrath would come back later.

"Sure," she faked a smile and led him inside, gesturing towards the lounge. "Make yourself at home."

_More like get yourself out of my home!_

"So, maths is still on on Sunday?" Dom asked casually.

Kel felt like telling him to shove off, he had already humiliated her in front of the entire sports and fitness class, and now he still wanted maths tutoring?

Two can play at being sickly sweet, she thought grimly.

"Of course," her smile appeared warm and whole-hearted.

Oranie chose that moment to dance down the stairs and into the lounge room.

"Let's go!"

As Dom kissed Oranie's cheek and led her out the door, Kel felt strongly like vomiting.

Player.

**_A/N: _**

**_Hope you liked, I actually had this and the last chapter into two chapters because Fanfic editor was running slow- I think it was too long. Please review!! :D_**

**_Hey, just putting this here for my own benefit as well as for your interest. :)_**

**_According to a Tamora Pierce interview:_**

**_Kel has seven siblings (descending age order): Anders, Patricine, Inness, Conal, Demadria, Adalia, Oranie and Avinar, Kel being the youngest._**

**_Anders is married to Vorinna and have five kids- Lachren the knight-page being the eldest._**

**_Patricine is married to a Yamani- Toshuro noh Akaneru- and they live on the Yamani islands with two children._**

**_Inness is married to Tilaine and has three kids._**

**_Conal is unmarried._**

**_Demadria is married to Gavin haMinch, they have one child on the way. _**

**_Adalia is married to Merovec Nond and has two children._**

**_Oranie is married to Ortien Hannalof._**

**_Avinar is unmarried and is a scholar/teacher in the city of gods. _**

**_Kel, obviously, is unmarried. But we can dream. XD_**

**_PEOPLE IN KEL'S FITNESS CLASS: Kel, Neal, Dom, Faleron, Seaver, Roald, Wolset, Lerant, Joren, Merric, Vinson, Zahir, Quinden...._**

**_YAYZ! I saw New Moon! IT was SO much better than Twilight! Jacob was so awesome!!! Almost converted me to Team Jacob!!!!! hahaha!_**

**_and HE TALKED TO ME!!!!!!!!!!! !_**

**_I seriously gotta get over that one...._**

**_lolz, please review if you have the time :D_**


	5. Ch 5: Defense, Shopping & PARTAY!

**_AN: *cries*... I got my senior school uniform today. I FEEL SO OLD!!_**

**_Anyway..._**

**Chapter 5- A Great Kisser, Defense, Shopping and PAR-TAY!**

The rest of the week was, thankfully, uneventful. Kel managed to avoid any form of interaction with Dom, except when she had to ask him in Maths to please turn the page.

Wednesday passed easily- although Kel did accidentally fall asleep in Science- and Oranie decided to give her sisters a blow-by-blow account of her date with Dom.

"He kissed me!" she had squealed excitedly. "Hell, he's such a great kisser!"

"He's had a lot of practise," Kel muttered dryly.

Oranie sniffed at her and rolled her eyes. "Either way, he _is_."

Almost nothing happened on Thursday, except that at lunch, Neal catapaulted some mashed potato, which hit Dom and the brunette that he was making out with squarely on their joined lips.

"QUEENSCOVE!" Dom had practically screamed across at his cousin.

The brunette licking the mashed potato off Dom's lips had stopped any further insults, and had made Kel's stomach churn sickeningly.

With Friday came the arrival of two assignments, and a phone call from Yuki.

Kel had just finished soccer training and was about to change clothes in preparation for Lalasa's self-defense class when her mobile phone rang loudly.

**_FYI: Mobile phone=cell phone _**

She dug in her school bag furiously- it was probably months since she had used the thing- and hit the accept button swiftly.

"Hello?" she said cautiously, checking to see whether she was holding it up the right way.

"KEL!" Yuki's bubbly, bright voice filled the speaker, causing Kel to wince slightly and hold the phone further back from her ear.

"Me and Shinko and Lalasa are going shopping tomorrow for dresses to wear to Faleron's party- you wanna come?"

"Um," Kel began, considering how best to get out of this. "I, um, sorta have to...."

There was a loud snort at the other end. "Oh, fine, Kel, I can tell you don't want to come. Forget it. See you Saturday!"

A click, and then beeping. Kel stared at the phone, bewildered by the ease in which she had gotten out of shopping. Yuki was usually so stubborn.

"Wow," she mumbled, pulling on a clean sports shirt, feeling wholly relieved.

* * *

When Lalasa arrived (driven by Faleron's elder brother and escorted by Faleron, much to Kel's amusement), Kel dragged her out into the backyard to get started.

"Okay," she began, and then realised that Faleron was still standing by the fence. "Fal- go away!"

Faleron mock-glared at her for a moment. "What if I want to stay?"

"You just got booted out," Kel informed him sternly, knowing that Lalasa would not want him to see what they were doing.

He hesitated by the fence for a moment, his eyes flicking to Lalasa.

"Fal, it's fine," Kel reassured him. "Nothing's going to happen _here_."

She could tell by his facial expression that he had guessed what had happened to Lalasa, and wanted to protect her.

"Alright," he finally said, still reluctant. "I'll see you. Lalasa- call me when you want a pick up."

Lalasa nodded meekly. "Thanks."

With Faleron now safely absent, Kel turned back to Lalasa. "First, you want to know basic punches and good places to go for. If you dig your nails under your attackers, they'll let go. If you..."

And so it went on, with several practical opportunities and more instructing.

At the end of it all, Kel was pleased with Lalasa's progress, if a little annoyed at how she treated the lessons. For the most part, Lalasa had treated it as a joke, but had still actually made an effort.

Kel led her inside to call Faleron, smiling encouragingly at her. "Good job. Next week, we'll try kicks and throwing."

"There's a next week?" A small sigh escaped Lalasa's lips.

"Yep," Kel said grimly.

She didn't care how much work it took, Lalasa was going to learn how to defend herself. Properly.

Lalasa had just hung up from calling Faleron when Kel's mother walked into the room, her smile warm.

"Hello, Lalasa, is it? How are you?"

"I'm good thanks, Mrs Mindelan," Lalasa returned the smile shyly.

Kel's mother turned to Kel, the grin her face a little mischevious. "Kel, darling, I heard that you've been invited to go shopping tomorrow!"

Kel's mouth dropped open slightly, and she shut it quickly. "Uh... yeah. I didn't really w-"

"What fun!" Ilane exclaimed gleefully. "A formal party! You should definitely go. I told Yuki that you would, when she rang. You need a dress, dear- you haven't had one for years."

Speechless, Kel could only stare at her knowing, wicked mother.

Yuki was _sly_.

* * *

"I still can't believe you did that," Kel grumbled.

Yuki led the way through the two double sliding doors into the plaza. "I can. It was so easy. I love your mother, Kel."

Kel had to laugh at the evil grin on Yuki's face.

Shinko grinned slightly. "Give the idea to its creditor, Yuki."

Yuki winked at Kel. "Okay, so it was Shinko's plan. I just carried it out."

All four of them halted just after the doorway, staring around.

"Where to?" Lalasa asked, eyeing the shops closest.

"Immortal Designs," said Yuki immediately, at the same time as Shinko suggested:

"Griffin!"

"Griffin?" Kel checked to see whether she'd heard right. It seemed like an odd name for a shop.

"YES!" Shinko practically shrieked. "It's an awesome shop! But Immortal Designs is in the same direction, so let's go that way."

She pointed down one direction of the vast plaza, and Kel decided to hope that they knew where they were going.

Immortal Designs was the kind of trendy shop that Kel never went near, let alone into.

"Are you sure?" she hesitated doubtfully at the door, staring at the shiny hangers and hearing the loud, 'Top 40 Countdown' style music playing.

"Of course!"

Kel was dragged in by an over-excited Yuki, who had (to Kel's horror) bought a Coke at a vending machine.

_As if she needs more caffeine_, Kel thought, watching Yuki flit around the store, grabbing dresses for Kel to try on.

Kel was shoved into a changing room with an armful of five dresses and an order to "Come out and show us each one!" from the other girls.

She was surprised to see how into clothes Lalasa was. Lalasa seemed very knowledgable about what colours and styles suited who- Kel had ended up with one pale brown dress, one black dress, one forest green, one a sunny yellow and a deeper blue dress to try on.

Kel slid the pale brown dress on and almost screamed. "NO!" she called out to the other girls. "No, no, no!"

"Come out!" Yuki's voice ordered. "Or I'll slide under the door and DRAG you out!"

Glancing down at the bottom of the door, Kel realised with terror that Yuki could actually carry out her threat.

She slid the bolt of the door across and swung the door open, peeking out nervously to either side to see who was out there. To her intense relief, only her friends were.

"Come on, Kel," Shinko yanked the door open the rest of the way, and stared at Kel in complete shock. "Wow. You look like a _girl_!"

Kel hid a blush, pulling at the dress's thin straps and low neck. "No. Just no. I'd never wear it."

"Next," Lalasa insisted. "We'll see which one is best."

And so it went on. None of the dresses were what Kel liked- too short, too low, too fitted...

"Fine," Yuki sighed in annoyance, after Kel had tried on all the dresses and declined them all. "You guys see anything you like?"

Shinko, after Kel's last dress, had wandered off around the shop to check out the other dresses with Lalasa. Lalasa had found a pale, rosy pink dress that she liked, and after trying it on ("O.M.G.! It looks AWESOME!" Yuki gushed brightly), Lalasa bought it.

"Cool," she smiled softly. "That's me taken care of. One down, three to go!"

The girls exited Immortal Designs laughing.

"MILKSHAKE!!" Shinko squealed, pointing towards a cafe.

Several people passing by gave her an extremely weirded out look, only spurring more laughs from Shinko, Yuki, Lalasa and Kel.

After buying milkshakes, they headed off to Griffin, getting sidetracked at a petshop on the way.

"The bunny is soooooo cute!" Yuki sighed, sucking up her milkshake through her straw loudly.

"The kitten is better," said Lalasa, walking her fingers gently up and down the glass to interest the pale grey kitten. "I want one."

Kel personally thought that the golden retriever puppies were the best.

They finally arrived at Griffin, milkshakes by that time gone. Kel took in the black and white patterns on the shop front with the plastic models and decided that, once again, it was a trendy shop that she wouldn't have chosen to go into, but it looked better than the last one. At least it had _some_ jeans hanging up around the place.

A silvery coloured dress took Shinko's fancy at once, while Yuki grabbed several pale, pastel coloured dresses to try on.

Lalasa, usually shy, forcefully dragged a faintly amused Kel around the store, picking several things off the hangers for her to try on.

After trying on four no-goes, Kel was thoroughly discouraged. "Maybe I'm just not the type to wear a dress," she told Lalasa repeatedly. "Jeans are good. T-shirts are good."

Lalasa rolled her eyes. "You're getting a dress, Kel, even if it takes all day."

After another four or five, Kel had a bright idea.

"I have an idea!" she said brightly to Lalasa. "How about I just borrow one of my sister's dresses? It's almost lunchtime and we have to go soon."

Yuki scowled. "WHAT! I wanted you to get a dress of your own."

Shinko patted Yuki's arm symathetically. "Me too. If you think you're getting out of buying a dress for good, Kel, you're wrong. There's always the school dances..."

A delighted grin lit up Yuki's fallen face. "Okay then! You can borrow one of your sister's dresses!"

And that was how, several hours later, Kel ended up sliding out of her car followed by Shinko, Yuki and Lalasa, who were all giggling quietly.

"Kel looks like a giiiirl," Yuki sang softly.

"Shut up," Kel growled furiously, embarrassment filling her.

She had ended up with Yuki, Shinko, Lalasa, Oranie and Adalia all ganging up on her- Adalia lent her a ridiculously short, black dress that showed off half her back and had a slit in the _chest_ area; Oranie, upon hearing that Dom was going to be at the party, let out a loud scream and bribed Shinko and Yuki to hold Kel down while she put on some mascara and lipgloss (whining all the while "pleeease Kel, you can't shame me in front of Dom, you have to look good, you're MY sister...") and Lalasa waved Kel's hair.

Kel had feigned being busting to go to the toilet and was reluctantly released to do so.

She had ran into the bathroom, shutting (and locking) the door behind her, and had instantly began scrubbing at the mascara and lipgloss.

A giggle came from outside the door and Kel jumped.

"Trying to get off the makeup, Kel?" a voice sung, one that Kel was fairly sure was Yuki. "The mascara's waterproof!"

_Torture_, Kel thought gloomily, wishing that she had never even agreed to go to Faleron's party. Maybe if she hadn't been nice to Faleron then he wouldn't have invited her, then...

She gave up trying to think of all the possibilities.

"Have fun, Kel!" her mother called, eyeing the large, two story house with flashing lights and loud, thudding music. "I'm trusting you!"

Kel couldn't help but smile at her mother's subtle reminder to be responsible.

"Let's PAR-TAY!!!" Shinko shouted excitedly; Kel pulled a face of horror. Oranie, in return for Shinko and Yuki holding Kel down, had made them both a vanilla latte, which, in Kel's opinion, only gave them more caffeine, and therefore, more energy.

They entered the house, it was packed. People were everywhere, dancing, talking, eating...

"There's Roald. I'll see you guys later," Shinko headed off into the crowd, leaving Yuki, Kel and Lalasa standing uncertainly.

"Let's go find Neal," Yuki practically yelled over the music, pointing off into a random direction. Kel and Lalasa nodded, following her forced path through the people.

Neal was eventually found, oddly enough, standing facing Dom- who was dressed in a deep, navy blue button down shirt and dark wash jeans, which only made Kel think _he has really really, really really blue eyes..._

She brought herself back to reality swiftly, remembering who- and _what_- Dom was.

And why was Neal _talking_ to him in public, anyway?

They slowed slightly, staring, until Dom flashed a pearly white smile and beckoned. Neal turned to see who was coming, his face flushed with what they only could assume was anger _(that explains it),_ and also smiled.

Looking at both cousins, both smiling, Kel could only be amazed at the similarities. The nose, the teeth, the set of the eyes...

"Wow," Yuki commented brightly. "You two definitely are cousins!"

To Kel's surprise, Neal scowled. "What's that supposed to mean?" he demanded, his tone instantly defensive. Kel noticed, out of the corner of her eyes, Lalasa cringing back slightly.

Yuki blinked, her eyebrows pulling down with confusion. "Nothing, I just meant you looked alike. A little alike," she added quickly.

Neal's expression relaxed, only to tighten again as Dom winked at the girls.

"Wow, you guys certainly look great," he drawled, his eyes flicking from one to the next, only to rest on Kel. "Never seen _you_ in a dress before, darling."

Kel adopted a wide eyed, oblivious look. "Oh, you've forgotten my name already. Only to be expected, I suppose. It's Kel- so you don't have to call me darling anymore."

Dom's smile only widened. "I could _never_ forget your name, babe. Kel... Keladry... _Kelly_..."

His eyes travelled up from her figure to meet hers; Kel met his eyes determinedly for a moment before breaking away.

_He looks really good,_ she thought dreamily...

_Shut up! _Kel slapped herself mentally, horrified at her thought train. What was wrong with her, anyway?!

"Just Kel, to you," she responded coldly, forcing herself to be aloof.

He tilted his head forward slightly in recognition of her reply. "For now."

Yuki rolled her eyes directly at Dom. "If you're done _trying_ to hit on Kel, we actually came over to get Neal."

Neal was smirking at the exchanges, enjoying the show. He didn't even realise that everyone's heads had turned to look at him.

"Oh!" he exclaimed, noticing. "What's up?"

Giggling, Yuki tugged his sleeve lightly. "Let's go, Neal."

Dom shrugged in a noncholant manner. "Alright- just leave me alone, why don't you. Who am I supposed to talk to now?"

Surprisingly, it was Lalasa who answered. "You'll find someone else to flirt with. Don't try and play the loner, it doesn't suit you."

Kel grinned at Lalasa, pleased but still a little shocked that she had actually _talked_ to Dom.

Dom also looked faintly staggered, his eyes raked Lalasa for a moment before he smiled yet again. "How would you like to be the someone else I flirt with, honey?"

Lalasa's expression closed abruptly and her eyes widened in what Kel could only call fear.

"Leave her alone, Dom," Kel snapped, remembering Vincent all too vividly. "She's too good for you."

Dom clutched his heart dramatically. "You wound me. How about _you_ stick around then?"

Shaking her head with a disgusted face, Kel moved away from him, Lalasa, Yuki and Neal following, only to enter the loud-music-zone again..

"Hey, Neal!" Yuki called, her face alight with a fresh smile. "Want to dance?"

Neal looked distinctly reluctant, but Yuki grabbed his hand and led him in a different direction, leaving Kel and Lalasa to their own devices.

"Now what?" sighed Kel, looking around for someone they knew. "I get dragged here, and then what? I get left all alone?"

Lalasa laughed a little. "Don't worry, Kel, I'm still here."

A tap on Kel's bare shoulder made her jerk around. Faleron stood there, his face anxious. "Kel, could I please borrow you for a second?"

Kel glanced at Lalasa, who, noticing, nodded at her quickly, and Kel shrugged. "Sure. I'll be right back, Lalasa."

Faleron led her out of the crowd and into a smaller room off the main one. "You look really good, Kel," he complimented hastily.

Kel eyed him curiously. "Thanks. What's wrong?"

He twisted his hands together in a nervous way. "Promise me you won't tell anyone?"

She nodded, wondering what on earth it could be.

"DoyouthinkLalasalikesme?" His words came out in a rush; Kel couldn't understand what he was saying.

"_What_?" she asked.

Faleron took a deep breath. "Okay. Lalasa. Do you think she likes me? Do you think she'd say yes if I asked her out?"

Kel took one look at his tortured, petrified face and burst out laughing.

He stared at her, a slightly hurt look on his face. "The idea of me asking her out is that funny?"

Kel shook her head quickly, still suppressing smaller laughs. "No- the idea of you thinking that she mightn't like you is funny. Sorry, Fal, but it is!"

Faleron's face relaxed instantly. "So you think she'd say yes?"

"I _know_ she'd say yes," Kel replied confidently. "Go ask her. She really likes you."

"She's said?" he checked.

"No. But it's kind of obvious," Kel allowed herself one last grin at this.

"Thanks, Kel," Faleron awkwardly hugged her around the shoulders. "It's just, I didn't want to ask Shinko or Yuki, because they'd giggle at me for about an hour, then maybe give me a cryptic answer, then tell the entire world, but I knew you wouldn't."

Kel was slightly touched that he trusted her that much. "That's okay. Go get her."

Nodding, Faleron lifted a hand as he opened the door and headed off into the crowd.

Kel stayed in the darkness of the other room for another minute, running her hand through her _styled_ hair and sighing.

Now what?

Everyone had coupled off and she was left alone.

She made herself shrug off the self-pity and smiled again at Faleron's uncertainty. He would be kind to Lalasa and wouldn't push her, she was sure of that, and so she was glad for them both.

A dark figure slid through the door into the room and shut it with an ominous click.

Kel frowned. "Hello?" she said uncertainly.

"Hey," an annoyingly smooth, familiar voice said. "I saw you go in here with Faleron- so what's up with you two?"

She groaned. "What is wrong with you, Masbolle? What do you _want_?"

"You," he answered predictably. "But seeing as you're not going to let me have what I want, I figured I'd ask you to dance."

Kel stood in stony silence.

"Well?" Dom prodded.

"You didn't ask me a question," Kel pointed out, her voice sarcastic.

He sighed loudly and the corner of Kel's mouth twitched up, before she forced them back down.

_What. The. Heck. Is. Wrong. With. Me??????_

_Smiling at him??_

Dom's voice brought her back to the present. "Hellooo? Kel? Dance with me?"

"No thankyou," Kel pushed past him towards the door, and opened it to reveal the blaring lights. "See you... _babe_."

_I can't believe I just said that,_ she thought, mortified. By now, she had gone over to the refreshments table and grabbed a glass of cold water. _That's only going to make it worse! I'm an idiot! Why do I... When he flirts with me... why do I respond???_

_I don't like him. I don't like him. He's a moron, he goes through ten, if not more girls a day. He's a player. _

Insulting Dom in her head reassured her slightly of her sanity.

Dom had followed her, his 'hot puppy dog eyes', as Yuki referred to them, on in full force.

"Aw, c'mon, Kel," he pleaded. Kel tensed with surprise at him actually using her name for once. "Don't leave me alone. Seriously. Just... one dance, and then I swear I'll leave you alone for the rest of the evening."

Kel honestly doubted that. "_No_," she snapped again, avoiding his eyes as best as she could.

The next thing she knew, he had come closer, one hand tilting up her chin so that she had to face him. "C'mon."

"No!" Kel managed to say, one hand reaching out to push him away. "I'm not going to dance with you!"

He sighed heavily and took her glass of water, stepping back abruptly. "If you're sure."

"Positive," she replied, feeling the warmth of his nearness evaporate.

"You know," Dom began, tilting her glass of water to the side. "If two people share a drink or food or their lips touch the same thing... it's just like a kiss?"

He tipped his head back and drained Kel's half-full glass of water, slamming it back down onto the table after he was done.

"You're disgusting," Kel told him, grimacing at his player mannerisms. "I wouldn't kiss you unless someone paid me a million bucks!"

She forced back the vision of Dom's soft lips descending down onto her own.

"Shame I don't have a rich friend." He didn't seem at all repentant.

Suddenly, his eyes widened, and fixed on a position behind Kel's head. "Oh crap."

"What?!" Kel twisted her head to try and see what exactly he was staring at.

To her shock, he grabbed her by the hand, turned both of them around so that his back was to whatever he had been staring at and pulled her close, wrapping one arm around her back and placing the other hand on the back of her head.

The vision was coming to life.

His lips descended on her own, even as Kel struggled in vain. She realised that Dom was a lot stronger than she thought- what did he do for sport anyway?- as she was effectively helpless in his arms. She could always punch him, of course, but he was kind of distracting her at the moment, and hurting him would be just...

Dom broke the contact after a few seconds, his face both satisfied and relieved. "Phew. Ex-girlfriend. It would not have been pretty to meet _her_ again. I knew she wouldn't recognise me from the back."

Part of Kel was rejoicing... the majority was screaming with fury.

"You jerk!" she hissed, her eyes narrowing. "Was it your ex-girlfriend or the girl you were making out with at lunch yesterday? Do you usually just grab random girls who you like the look of and start snogging them to avoid someone else, without their permission? My gosh, you probably have some sort of _disease_ from kissing that many girls. You actually had the _nerve_ to use me to help _you_, even if you did humiliate me in front of _EVERYONE_ in Sports and Fitness and you-"

"Kel?" Without her realising, Neal had come up behind her . "Are you okay? I saw him-" he pointed to Dom. "and you, erm..."

"No, I am _not_ okay!" Kel snapped, the force of her anger directed wholly on Dom. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand violently. "This, this, moron here just kissed me to get rid of an ex-girlfriend!"

Neal's face switched abruptly from confused into a glare almost as enraged as Kel's. "YOU STINKING FRUITHEAD!"

Dom's expression was full to the brim of alarm. "I, er... Thankyou, Kel, for your help. It was much appreciated. I... I'll see you tomorrow for tutoring!"

He disappeared off into the crowd, but both Kel and Neal heard his last mocking call. "You know you loved it, darling!"

**_A/N: I don't normally do this, but for me it was essential to have the pictures of the dresses so that I could try to see Lalasa, Yuki, Kel and Shinko in them. So these are the closest of the ones that I thought of: [remove the extra spaces]_**

**_Shinko's : _****_http : / / www1 . macys . com / catalog / product / index . ognc ? ID=427656 & CategoryID=29854 _**

**_Yuki's [as before. is magenta, but imagine it pale yellow]: _****_http : / / www1 . macys . com/ catalog / product/index . ognc? ID=400462 &CategoryID = 29853_**

**_Lalasa's [it's blue, but pale pink. you know :) DAMN! Lalasa's original dress got deleted :'(]: _****_http : / / www1 . macys . c om/ catalog /product/index . ognc ?ID=341496&CategoryID=40067 _**

**_Kel's, or rather, Kel's sister's: _****_http:// www . greatglam . com/pd-worth-the-benefits-black . cfm_**

**_And thankyou to personlikething for suggesting that Kel borrows a super hot, revealing dress from one of her sisters :)_**

**_Also- thankyou HEAPS for all the people who sent dress picture URLS to me- don't worry, even if I didn't use them this chapter, you'll see them later on *COUGHwinterdanceCOUGH*. THEY WERE GREAT!_**

**_Hope you liked this chapter- I'm not a fan myself, but it's necessary... Tutoring should be fun to write! _**

**_ALSO: I'm sorry about the English mixup! No one who reviewed actually seemed to notice, but I re read Why, Hello today and realised... I wrote on one chapter that the english teacher was Miss ___ who made Kel give an entire speech on her life, and then the next that it was a brisk lady who didn't make Kel say anything. Sorry! I'll fix it if I do an edit! _**


	6. NOTE

**IMPORTANT NOTE - PLEASE READ**

Hi guys, I am really sorry for what I'm about to say. I know that I've started a lot of stories and I thank you all for being so patient while I slowly updated and continued them. Your reviews have been amazing and so encouraging.

I'm so sorry, but I've decided to leave fanfiction dot net, that is, to stop writing fanfiction altogether. I know a lot of my stories are unfinished but I hope that you enjoyed them nonetheless. If you're wondering why I am giving up fanfiction, it's just because I really feel that I need to change my priorities and get on track- I spend way too much time reading and trying to write fanfiction when I really need to focus on other things. I will miss writing and I will miss all the lovely and incredible reviews.

I am going to say, however, that I know a lot of people who read my stories are amazing writers. If you want to continue a story or base other stories off one of my stories or whatever, go ahead. I'm not planning on ever coming back to this. So feel free to do whatever you want- I am basically removing all of my ownership and copyright from my stories.

I was originally going to delete my account but I can't actually find a way to do that, so I'm just going to leave it but change my password to something random and get rid of my email address from it so that I don't get any notifications. I almost prefer it this way because it means that other people can still read my stories/oneshots if they want.

It's not that I didn't enjoy writing and reviewing and reading other stories, it's just that I really feel that I need to give it up and, well, 'get a life' ;)

Thankyou all so much for your support of my stories and I wish you all the best for your writing and reading. If you want to know what was going to happen in the end of my stories, I did actually have a plot for most of them... so if you want to read it you can read them below this note. Once again, my sincere apologies.

Cheers,

_Storm._

**WHAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN IN MY [incomplete] STORIES:**

**Arranged- **_continued from ch. 16: Purple_ Kel and Dom attended court tea at which Lady Felicity discovered a much older but very rich marriage prospect for Vera. Kel naturally was horrified at this while Dom also opposed the match. Vera met a boy a couple of years older than herself with a less rich fief that she is attracted to. Dom was going to lose his betrothal ring whilst practicing with Wolset, and he and Kel were going to spend the evening looking for it. They would find it and both would feel slightly more at ease with the other. Alyssa was going to visit Dom's rooms to invite Kel to her betrothal party. Dom was going to have to meet Kel's dragon of a grandmother (see Squire for mention). The wedding would then happen, and at the end, Queen Thayet and King Jonathon would present the newly married couple with a small fief as a reward for their services to the kingdom. The couple would then be forced to spend their 'wedding night' in the same room, during which Kel hears Dom sleep talk and becomes concerned about him. After several awkward days of marriage, Dom feels that he has to tell Kel how he feels, whether it ruins their marriage or not. However, he finds that he doesn't have to when Kel confronts him after she hears him say 'I love you' in his sleep. She wants to know who he was talking about, he hopes that she is jealous and finally admits his feelings, which leads to a much happier marriage. Felicity arranges Vera's betrothal to the rich, older man, and Vera has absolutely no desire to marry him. Kel and Dom step in and stand up to Felicity about Vera's match, when it becomes official they oppose it in court and both admit that their own marriage was arranged, but that it turned out for the best. Leads to revision of arranged marriage laws by the Crown. Story would have ended with a content Kel and Dom and Vera courting the younger boy that she met at the court tea.

**Behind These Hazel Eyes**- _was going to undergo a full rewrite._ : In the end the last chapter was not going to be a song but would simply contain Dom reconciling with Neal and confessing his mistakes. Neal would then seek out Kel and convince her to see Dom, who would explain but wouldn't expect to be forgiven. A year later, Kel would go to Dom and tell him that she forgives him, if he still feels the same way. Story would have ended with the two being happily together.

**Charm**- was going to be a simple comic Kel/Dom. Wolset and Neal would have played some amusing pranks whilst Dom and Kel would have had a good laugh over the fact that they were secretely together. Eventually, a year or two later, the two would announce their betrothal without ever publically revealing their relationship and everyone would be stunned.

**Feeding The Fire**- no particualar plan. Was just going to be angsty Katniss/Peeta then end being Katniss/Gale with flickers of the rebellion.

**The Storm Of The Vine**- was going to be a story of Tris finding her place in the world, and both her and Briar being confused over their feelings of attraction towards each other. Would have included Briar with another girl, Tris's jealousy, etc, then have ended with mutual confessions and a Tris/Briar pairing.

**After The Time Paradox**: **Tangles:** no particular plan. Classic defeat Opal, Artemis/Holly ending.

**Why, Hello- **Kel and Dom would have been forced to spend more time together for tutoring and school while flickers from Dom's difficult and broken past would have been revealed. Would have eventually built up to Dom changing around Kel but returning to himself at school, then when she confesses frustration at this he would have wanted to change for the better. Was originally meant to be a comedy Kel/Dom.

**I Do II-** Kel and Dom's marriage is originally happy until Kel meets Dom's handsome elder brother and realises that he is the man she almost slept with. She would confess this to Dom, who would be hurt and furious despite not telling Kel about his brief affair with Oranie. Major angst. Dom would eventually tell Kel about this, who in turn would be hurt and confused. In the end, Kel would discover that she is pregnant and this brings the two together again.

**You Belong With Me-** would have just followed modified song lyrics. More awkward moments, more jealousy, finally Dom breaks up with Cynthia and Kel asks why, he confesses that he was just trying to get over his own feelings for Kel. The two get together.

**ONESHOTS [that I never wrote but planned:**

**Flirt**

Summary: It's been two years since she'd been squire to Lord Raoul, and Kel decides that it is finally time to move on from Dom. However Dom may have other ideas.

**Transitions**

Summary: It was odd, her relationship with Dom. So... smooth. It seemed that one moment they'd been laughing together in the Own and the next they were getting married.

**Little Sister**

Summary: Dom is sure that he only thinks of Kel as a little sister, and tells her as much.

**Letters to Juliet**

Summary: Dom is quite drunk, along with the rest of the Third Company, and Wolset, Lerant and Fulcher take it upon themselves to help him write a letter to his unknown lady love.

**Lady**

Summary: Dom opens the door for Kel, and Neal wonders why since she's not a lady. This leads to much argumentation from the two cousins as to Kel's femininity.

**Public Displays of Affection**

Neal discusses how disgusting he finds couples who are all over each other, and Dom takes it upon himself to demonstrate with the nearest woman- who just so happens to be Kel.

**Favours**

Summary: Kel is jousting and Dom decides to give her a favour for luck.

**Lacking In Sublety**

Summary: A series of oneshots. What if Kel/Dom/any other character just said plain out what they were thinking at particualar moments in the books?


	7. Surprise? Good or bad, you decide

**... Yeah ok, don't shoot me guys! Basic gist of all this is: new account (Katia22) u/4459658/Katia22... Guilty return of neglectful author, probably no progress until end of 2013-early 2014! So don't get too pumped or infuriated or whatever you're feeling right now. Comprendas? Profile explains more, in case you're too lazy to visit it I'll post it here ;) :**

**"**... Greetings world of fanfiction! I know that, since I haven't written anything on this account, no one cares and no one will probably read this. But that's quite ok, because I'm waiting. Waiting for December 2013 and the freedom that it will bring, meaning that I will once again be able to write.

Maybe someone picked up on those key words. "On this account". So possibly some of you know me already, as . ( u/1692821/you-just-got-STORMed). Yep, I used to hang around on here a fair bit until I decided to force myself to focus more on my studies and my life itself as I felt that I was slipping out of who I wanted to be and losing track of my goals. But my dears, here's the thing- balance is the key, and I genuinely want to write again. So here I am, back again, crawling on my hands and knees and hoping that you'll still read my stuff, even if I did abandon you about two years ago with a lot of unfinished stories.

So. I'm going to write again. Whilst my other account still exists and I did manage to get back into it again, I'd rather make a fresh start with this one. So I'll gradually (and very slowly) be transferring stories- but ONLY my Protector of the Small fics, none of my Artemis Fowl, Twilight, Obernewtyn, etc. fanfics- and editing them as they go. You will probably see a lot of major changes, as I now go back through my work grimacing and clutching my head at, well, almost everything. But hey, everyone has to start somewhere, and in a few years time I'll probably log-in and almost die of humiliation at what my writing is like now. But I'm definitely looking forward to playing around with this stuff again.

This certainly won't be a fast process though! I have my last year of school to finish, which includes some pretty major exams, assessments and even a massive creative writing piece. I'm excited about this but also just wishing it was over already. So I might get around to a little bit of editing over the next few weeks but it won't be much, if any. I miss getting reviews and readers though, and I must say, thanks heaps guys for all of the reviews you gave me at the end and even to some people who sent me nice goodbye messages! Cheers, cause you're my encouragement and I'm fairly sure that without this site I wouldn't have had the guts to pick up my creative writing subject this year.

Anyway, I'm probably boring you with all of this drivel because the fact is, none of it matters. I hope to see some of you around again reading my stories and I'd love to read some of yours!

- Katia (aka . )."

**Cheers for reading guys. Apologies for leaving the first time and again now- but this time I can see the end and I'm promising I'll be back, hopefully as a better writer ;)**


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